The modern-day Irish farmer wrestles with multiple challenges, regardless of whether being in dairying, beef or tillage.
These include unpredictable weather extremes exacerbated by climate change; compliance requirements to secure State and European Union supports and unrelenting demands to do the right thing – notably, reduce methane emissions and enhance nature. This coincides with a time when land use is subject to unprecedented pressures beyond food production.
Compounding matters is a social sustainability issue. The days of easy handover to the next – usually more progressive – generation are largely gone. Inconsistent income levels undermine many family farms; which often struggle with lack of available labour. There is no silver-bullet solution, but scientists at Maynooth University are applying a breadth of thinking and innovation with a view to putting farming on a surer footing.
The ultimate aim, says Prof Gerry Lacey head of the department of electronic engineering, is to optimise yields and resource use “while delivering a resilient ecosystem that nurtures soil health, biodiversity and long-term environmental vitality”.
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“Our vision is to develop robotics technology that is suited to the Irish farming environment and Irish climate,” he adds. “We’re also working closely with farmers and with companies who are in the agribusiness to understand what their needs are and develop a technology that will allow farmers to solve various different issues about being able to plant earlier in the year, when the ground is wetter, because the robots are lighter.”
A key priority too is to use robots with “sensing solutions” to monitor and manage crop cultivation and to deploy vertical solar panels. This also helps solve the problem of being unable to get people when you need them, he says.
While his work is “above ground”, his team works closely with others looking at soil health issues.
Maynooth campus is home to a one-hectare robot farm and a sustainability research station examining how robots facilitate sustainable approaches, such as using less fertilisers and pesticides.
“We’re really looking to apply technology to help farmers move to a more sustainable mode of agriculture using regenerative techniques ... We’ve looked at what are the kind of problems that farmers have, and we’ve tried to address those problems that are top of their minds.
“Soil compaction is a big one, making the machines easy to modify and to use as much of the existing equipment as possible, rather than giving them kind of a shrink-wrapped, shiny solution. It’s something that they can repair if needed, that they have more agency when it comes to that robot,” Lacey adds.
This is part of a project called Aura, which co-funded by Enterprise Ireland and Comex McKinnon.
They are investigating with farmers the effectiveness of vertical solar, ie upright panels that cover only 10 per cent of the land compared with a traditional solar farm
When it comes to renewable energy, using solar in farm settings is much easier, rather than “mechanically trickier” wind.
“There’s no moving parts in a solar panel, so that means they’re much easier to maintain. They’re relatively low to the ground, so particularly in the vertical solar panels they’re very, very easy to install. It’s basically a fence,” he says.
They are investigating with farmers the effectiveness of vertical solar, ie upright panels that cover only 10 per cent of the land compared with a traditional solar farm. Agrivoltaic systems may not be as efficient compared with the raw energy outputs of turbines but they are cheaper to install and maintain.
Dramatic reduction in solar panel prices has coincided with them becoming more flexible. Researchers are looking at possible roles as hedgerows/fences in farm fields with double-facing solar panels generating power while acting as windbreaks for crops and livestock.
Reducing excessive shading of plants is critical. Scientists in Austria and Denmark have devised two-sided prototypes for use in vertical rows in fields, which maximises space for farming while allowing solar generation during the morning and evening if panels face east and west, which avoids shading when the sun is at its highest. In France, flexible panels are used to protect crops including vines which are vulnerable to hail and frost.
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Lacey is evaluating Irish crop growth while integrating robotics with vertical panels, allowing farmers to manage the space around them optimally. Particular conditions pertain to Ireland such as heavy soils in high rainfall areas and saturated land that can delay planting and harvesting, while the country is getting cloudier.
This has culminated in a partnership with Irish Distillers to develop an “autonomous regenerative agriculture platform” that reduces carbon outputs through robotics and advanced sensing solutions.
Along with seeking to eliminate the need for chemicals, smart farm technology allows for precision in seed planting and increased regenerative agriculture, Lacey says.
This is a conservation and rehabilitation approach focused on topsoil regeneration; increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting carbon capture, increasing resilience to climate change and strengthening the vitality of farm soil.
“We will use mobile farming robots, sensing solutions and vertical solar panels to monitor and manage cereal cultivation, with the aim of optimising grain yields and resource utilisation while delivering a resilient ecosystem that nurtures soil health, biodiversity and long-term environmental vitality,” he says.
Test plots were planted in spring 2024 with a variety of crops and monitored throughout the summer with 3D cameras and soil testing before being harvested in autumn. They have developed new imaging techniques that use both the shape and colour of leaves to automatically determine plant health using low-cost mobile devices – and enable early intervention, if needed.
Lacey believes robotics, sensoring technology and agrivoltaics will make farmers energy independent. He cites the case of a Waterford dairy farmer working with them using vertical solar and already saving 60 per cent of his energy costs
A lot of work is on scaling up use of robots for planting, weeding and watering purposes.
Irish Distillers’ head of sustainability and compliance Graham Caulwell says it’s helping to address one of the biggest challenges of our time. “With the integration of robotics, this pioneering project aims to support regenerative agriculture while enhancing efficiency. This partnership is more than a commercial alliance; it is the fusion of shared visions for a sustainable future,” he adds.
Lacey believes robotics, sensoring technology and agrivoltaics will make farmers energy independent. He cites the case of a Waterford dairy farmer working with them using vertical solar and already saving 60 per cent of his energy costs.
“This is about producing all the energy and labour they need with an ability to fix their own equipment.”
But it is also about exploiting “codependence”, in helping them become scientists and sharing their data with neighbours; “having the notion of meitheal”.
Their work helping farmers to conduct on farm experiments aimed at improving soil health is called DNET4SSoils. It is led by his colleague Dr Conor Meade, an ecologist in the department of biology, with funding from Research Ireland.
The technology enables the gathering of crop fitness readings 24/7 from a wide diversity of crop varieties, local soil types, farm-specific soil management approaches and local microclimates. This generates a detailed, live, open-access database of crop cultivation alternatives for the farming community.
Age of the cobot
Maynooth University is a leader in pioneering applications where robots and humans work in combination to solve problems.
Prof Gerry Lacey explains: “A cobot is a robot that works alongside human beings so if you have something heavy to lift, a cobot will come in beside you and lift it with you.
“We’re starting to see robots entering the real world, we’re seeing robots acting as pets, as companions for the elderly, so right now we have robots acting to help doctors do surgery. Those operations would be impossible without robots.”
Their robotic dog called Megabyte, courtesy of PhD student James Florin Petri, comes with remarkable functionality. He is looking at how robots can learn to use very energy efficient ways of walking.
“We also use research on the dogs to understanding how we switch between our instincts for maintaining balance with higher level commands such as walking, running, and jumping,” Lacey says.
He worked for many years in Trinity College Dublin, specialising in use of robotics in medical settings such as surgery, infection control and colonoscopy.
A big factor in moving to Maynooth, he adds, was “a very collaborative environment”, stretching across engineering, business, biology and chemistry – with space to do experiments. “Having an undergraduate degree in robotics and a now a master’s degree in robotics meant that it was very much more aligned to where I wanted to be, when I eventually grew up!”
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