Robotics on leys: An Unmanned Ground Vehicle to monitor forage grasslands

Remote sensing information supports farmers to adjust practices and increase the forage grassland production and efficiency of dairy and meat production. Unlike satellites, which can be affected by weather conditions, or drones, which face regulatory restrictions and payload limitations, Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) could become an efficient scouting tool to help farmers in their decision-making processes. In the scope of the “Robotics on leys” pilot project, we developed a compact agricultural robot equipped with GPS, cameras and spectrometers. An initial trial occurred in a ley field (a mixture of grass and red clover) in Northern Sweden in 2023. We successfully captured georeferenced images, videos and spectral data. The robot showed a potential to be used in field conditions to acquire spectral data and pictures, which could be used in the future to estimate botanical composition, biomass production, and winter survival. The next steps will be communicating with stakeholders and implementing more processing and improvements.