Feldschwarm® ÖkoSystem
Project partners
The regional alliance for a new era of agriculture
The partners in the consortium contribute complementary competencies with high synergy potential in terms of technological expertise and market segments, supported and strengthened by three renowned research institutions.
Build and bundle competencies
Collaboration between the various stakeholders in agriculture—including farmers, research institutions, and technology providers—fosters an interdisciplinary approach that is essential for driving innovation.
Adaptation of knowledge from other fields
Thanks to the interdisciplinary approach—combining engineering sciences and engineering psychology—solution principles can be successfully adapted and further developed for agriculture.
Significantly shape innovation
Field robotics is an exciting and forward-looking field with the potential to create an ecosystem for highly automated agricultural soil cultivation.
Sustainable and long-term partnerships
The project offers the opportunity to establish and deepen connections with industry partners, enabling sustainable networking and long-term cooperation. We call this an associated partnership, which can be joined at any time.
How agriculture will change
Challenges & solutions
The future of agriculture will be strongly shaped by automation and robotics, with the aim of reducing costs and increasing efficiency. While direct scaling, as seen in industry, is not feasible due to limited resources, the focus is on intelligent mechanization. This includes the machine-based analysis of agricultural data to minimize environmental impact through optimized soil cultivation, irrigation, and fertilization.
The introduction of robotic solutions will initially take place in areas with high value creation and manageable levels of automation complexity—such as horticulture, fruit and viticulture, soil cultivation, seeding, and crop care. Intelligent machine deployment increases productivity and provides greater autonomy for repetitive tasks. In addition, sensor-based assessments enable more precise application of fertilizers and crop protection products, improving both efficiency and the quality of agricultural processes.
Leipzig University IWI
"Autonomy is seen as a key technology for addressing the challenges of modern agriculture."
The increased use of robots in the field is intended not only to improve efficiency, but also to help address the future labor shortage in agriculture. This requires a fundamental shift in thinking, particularly in light of current environmental conditions. The focus is no longer on one-size-fits-all solutions, but on tailored approaches that empower farmers to tackle their specific challenges.
A key aspect is the early involvement of farmers in the process, ensuring they are informed about both opportunities and risks.
LEMKEN GmbH & Co. KG
"Robotics must become tangible and useful for farmers."
Project work in detail
Roles & responsibilities
The research conducted by the Technische Universität Dresden focuses on improving sensor-based data acquisition and the automation of processes in soil cultivation. To achieve this, optical systems are being developed to automatically monitor the condition of tools.
The design of the human–machine interface (HMI) for managing highly automated agricultural processes plays a key role in enabling effective collaboration between humans and robots, as well as in developing intuitive interfaces. In addition, it is ensured that specific product requirements—particularly regarding connectivity and compatibility—are aligned within the overall system and process engineering framework.
Furthermore, a process is being defined based on a structured requirement profile, along with specialized procedures for the FS ecosystem that are tailored to user needs, creating a well-matched portfolio of equipment and processes.
LACOS is developing a core application that serves as a mission planning app. This web-based solution enables users to manage master data such as customers, machines, and fields, as well as to plan and schedule tasks. It also provides real-time status reports and results from field robots.
Another subproject focuses on the development of control software—the so-called Autonomy Software Kit. This software receives tasks from the mission planning app and translates them into control commands for the robots.
LEMKEN focuses on the detection of disturbances and the evaluation of work quality. A key objective is to automate equipment in such a way that it can independently identify and respond to disruptions without the need for operator or supervisory intervention.
Currently, it is still the responsibility of farmers to adjust their machines according to their specific needs and to monitor the quality of work. In future generations of machinery, enhancing process intelligence will therefore be crucial. This includes both the monitoring of operations and the assessment of the quality of work performed by the equipment.
The Fraunhofer IWU is responsible for the self-perception of the soil cultivation implement as well as the sensor integration of tillage tools in order to detect their load and wear conditions.
In addition to simple questions—such as whether a share is still present or a disc is blocked—more complex information is also gathered, for example regarding the wear and degradation state of the tools. Using appropriate actuators, the tools can be adjusted if necessary, or the system can indicate when a replacement is required.
Thomas Damme
Managing Director
Dr. Sebastian Röttgermann
Pre-development engineer
Dr. Markus Werner
Research Manager
LACOS GmbH
LACOS is acquiring entirely new expertise in a future-oriented field of agriculture through this project and is opening up a new customer segment.
LEMKEN GmbH & Co. KG
Similar to the detection of disturbances, future generations of machinery will need to place a strong focus on process intelligence—particularly on process monitoring and the evaluation of the implement’s work quality.
Fraunhofer IWU
The IWU and the process monitoring team focus—contrary to the general trend—on non-optical sensor technology. The visionary aspect lies in the ability to derive information about soil conditions directly through the tillage tools, which is not accessible via onboard cameras, drones, or satellite systems.
Universität Leipzig is working together with partners from the consortium to develop innovative components for autonomous systems. The focus lies on sensor platforms for agricultural machinery, the creation of environmental and machine datasets for research and development in the field of AI, as well as software solutions for object detection and safe navigation.
In addition, work is being carried out on the development of autonomous drones and their integration into a landing platform. Digital interfaces ensure seamless integration into the comprehensive Field Swarm® ecosystem.
Prof. Dr. Bogdan Franczyk
Project Coordinator of the Faculty of Economics and Management Science at Leipzig University
Eidam Agrarsystem is driving the transition from traditional agricultural machinery to the level required for field robots within the Field Swarm. A key focus is the collaborative interaction between robots and machine operators. As part of the project, implements are being developed that work hand in hand with both robots and farmers. They are designed to ensure process reliability in the presence of disturbances and in achieving consistent work results—minimizing distractions and ultimately becoming a true support and relief in daily operations.
This includes practical control of the implement as well as the ability to influence the robot’s behavior. The foundation for this lies in sensors integrated into the implement. The evaluation unit makes the implement intelligent and transmits commands that can be understood and executed by the robot.
The key feature of the platform is its openness, ensuring that farmers are not confronted with a patchwork of software platforms, but instead have access to a seamless, barrier-free solution for managing and planning their operations.
Hendryk Eidam
Managing Director
BITSz develops the electronics and software for the sensor systems integrated into the tools within the project. The focus is on highly miniaturized components with maximum performance.
Ensuring optimal overall system performance—particularly in terms of response speed, energy consumption, and data volume—is a key objective. The developed components must also meet the requirements for series production readiness, including robustness, integrability, serviceability, and cost efficiency.
IndiKar is developing a drone hub for transport, featuring automated take-off and landing as well as integrated charging infrastructure for agricultural drone operations.
In addition, a sensor module (retrofit box) for the autonomy control system is being developed to enable the upgrade of TIM-enabled tractors. This facilitates the transition to autonomous field operations and supports the orchestration of multiple machines into a coordinated field swarm.
The solution is designed to be adaptable to different types of machinery, covering a wide range of agricultural use cases.
Hydrive is developing a universal remote control station for field robots from different manufacturers within the Field Swarm project. A key focus is ensuring compliance with current standards for functional safety in control systems.
In addition, work is being carried out on a virtual testing environment for machine control systems of field robots from various manufacturers and with different environmental perception systems. This virtual environment enables significantly faster development and validation of machine control systems.
Dr. Sven Schmidt
Head of Development
Gunnar Schulz
Head Of Development
Dr. Thomas Neubert
Managing Director
“Field robots are currently ushering in the next stage of productivity growth in agriculture. Together with the partners of the Feldschwarm® Ökosystem, we aim to make a significant contribution to ensuring that farmers can fully realize this potential.”
Dr. Marcel Marktgraf
Fraunhofer IVI
Fraunhofer IVI focuses within the Feldschwarm® Ökosystem project on the orchestration and safety of robot swarms. The technologies developed and further advanced here enable machine manufacturers to provide open interfaces for distributing tasks to individual agricultural robots.
Operational safety and feasibility in multi-machine operations are already taken into account during the planning of tasks. These core technologies are designed to provide farmers with simple and secure access to the use of autonomous machines.
Funded by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space
