An innovative technology concept for harvesting grass from lowlands is underway in Denmark. Farmer John Doe sits in his Grassbots control center. A high level of comfort and autonomy enables him to control the pack of Grassbots, effectively cutting and collecting grass from his meadow later to be delivered at the local biogas plant. John is a happy farmer. Up until a few months ago, John was forced to buy expensive fertilizer at the neighboring farm. Thanks to his Grassbot pack, he is now producing his own high quality organic fertilizer in the biogas digester. The biogas is also playing a vital part in the production of renewable heat and power in the local town. John enjoys the wildlife at the open meadows and knows that he is also contributing to reduce the risk of leaching nutrients to the nearby stream.
The future is near
In a near future, this scenario can be reality in many lowland areas in Europe. A group of Danish companies and universities are well underway in the development, testing and demonstration of a complete Grassbots system. The intention is to downscale farming equipment though robots and automatization, enabling the soft meadow soils to be utilized for biomass production. This can become a key solution for the utilization of more biomass from low-lying areas. This will enable the farmer to be a steady supplier of biomass for biorefinery purposes. Working autonomous in packs using GPS, the Grassbots will cut, collect and deliver organic grass for the production of biogas, fodder, fertilizer or even more high value products like proteins or products for the medical industry.
A disruptive innovation
The prolonged trend in the agricultural machinery sector has been to increase performance and lower the cost by introducing large manually operated machinery to the market. These traditional machines have a high capacity, but also a heavy weight. The downside is significant soil compaction, which requires high energy consumption for tillage. The amount of energy used for tillage can be significantly reduced by using lightweight machinery. In addition to this, valuable biomasses are not utilized for fodder or bioenergy simply because heavyweight machines can not operate in the lowland areas.
Against the trends
The Grassbots concept moves against this trend by introducing a robust, flexible and autonomous lightweight implement carrier developed by Danish company Lynex. A robotic system reduces the direct energy consumption by optimizing the driving pattern through an ICT/GPS based route planning system, developed by Aarhus University in Foulum. The company Kongskilde Industries customizes their implements to fit the carrier, whereas Conpleks Innovation and University of Southern Denmark add knowledge and technology to the machines making them autonomous and capable of working in groups only supervised by one farmer.
The composition of various machines from two machines suppliers generates a need for a common concept design. This is the job for the industrial design Keld Bertelsen, who also brings elements of gamification (the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems), into the way that the farmer supervises and controls the Grassbots during operation. The whole concept is being developed and demonstrated at the autonomous hectare next to Agro Business Park in Foulum, Jutland.
The Grassbots project is funded by the Central Denmark Region, ICT Agri under the European Union Seventh Framework Program and by the participating organizations.
John is a farmer of the near future. Innovative technologies enable him to utilize more biomass and through the biogas to refine a low quality grass into useful products for the society: heat, electricity (or fuel) and valuable fertilizer. Nature conservation is enhanced and the farmer is returning to the key role in the utilizing the agricultural landscape for the benefit of rural development.
This post was written by Claus Mortensen, Project Manager at Agro Business Park – Denmark (contact Claus here).
Grassbot project website
