Smart Farming

Digital Agriculture?

Visual computing is a valuable aid in all areas of agriculture, be it in plant cultivation, animal husbandry, paludiculture (peatland management) or mariculture.

In developing digital solutions for agriculture, the Fraunhofer team makes use of remote detection, sensor technology, modeling, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Team members are constantly wrestling with the challenge of how best to combine the technological push from research with the demand from practice. The aim is to drive forward the digital revolution in the agricultural sector in the long term, acting in the capacity of partner for industry and research.

Through scientific and practical collaboration, we ensure effective and profitable integration of our solutions into existing infrastructures.

  • Our focus is on visualization and on digital intelligence as applied to agricultural practice, with the aim of promoting sustainable, resource-conserving, emission-reducing agriculture.
  • In our particular regional context, we also want to be a general contact point for innovations in biogenic value creation.
  • We have access to a network of agricultural practitioners, companies, investors and scientists (both internal and external to the Fraunhofer institutes).
  • We have the capacity to support ideation processes and develop business concepts.
  • With the aid of appropriate analytical tools and/or digital data-based support to the decision-making process, farms are able to operate more efficiently and sustainably.

Our objectives

  • Increasing productivity and product quality while conserving resources
  • Reducing the consumption of inputs such as fertilizers, chemical crop protection agents or antibiotics while increasing efficiency
  • Improving understanding of the complex interactions of different factors within agricultural production
  • Enabling new business models through digitalization for the valorization of ecosystem services
  • Supporting regional transformation processes
  • Transferring digital innovations into agricultural practiceSteigerung von Produktivität und Produktqualität bei gleichzeitiger Schonung von Ressourcen

Our digital credentials

  • Visual processing of digital information (3D, VR, AR)
  • Virtual data rooms & digital twins
  • Analytics of optical measurement data (data science, big data, AI)
  • Geoinformatics and remote sensing
  • Digital system integration

Our farming credentials

  • Animal welfare monitoring (in barns and in fish farms)
  • Cultivation of field crops, fruit and vegetables
  • Grassland and agroecosystems
  • Peatland systems (paludiculture)
  • Forestry

Main areas of research

 

Crop

We combine the advantages of drones and visual computing to perform vegetation analysis and species recognition from the air.

 

Livestock

We offer customized solutions for a variety of animal species in the livestock industry.

More about the Fraunhofer Biogenic Value Creation and Smart Farming Center

Initiative for biogenic value creation and smart farming

Fraunhofer Institutes in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Bavaria have come together in the Fraunhofer Biogenic Value Creation and Smart Farming Center to jointly research and develop innovative technologies for the agriculture of the future that will be highly individualized, automated, sustainable and geared to specific regional requirements.