AI Real-World Lab for Sustainable Agriculture in Lower Saxony
The RLA project (KI-Reallabor Agrar) aims to support the sustainable transformation of agriculture via the deployment of AI, robotics, sensors, and autonomous systems under real-world conditions. It addresses major challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution. A central infrastructure is the FieldLab Agrar in the Osnabrück region, which serves as a research, demonstration, and educational site. Among its core activities are three use-case areas: biodiversity monitoring, semi-autonomous agricultural machinery, and new agricultural processes via autonomous robots. The project integrates technical, legal, social, and economic perspectives and places emphasis on moving research into practice, cooperating also with stakeholders, and ensuring acceptance, economic viability, and regulatory alignment.
Key features
- Real practice setting (FieldLab) for testing robotics & AI in agriculture
- Interdisciplinary consortium (Universitäten, Forschungsinstitute, practical partners) covering technical, social, legal, economic angles
- Multiple use cases: biodiversity monitoring, semi-autonomous machines, etc.
Funding
- Part of the “zukunft.niedersachsen” initiative
- Funded through the Volkswagen Foundation via the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony. Total funding over 5 years: €18.9 million
More Information
https://www.dfki.de/en/web/research/projects-and-publications/project/rla
Project Partners
- University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück
- University Osnabrück
- Agrotech Valley Forum e.V.
- Technical University of Braunschweig
- Johann Heinrich von Thünen Insitute
- Leibniz Institute for agriculture and bio economics
- Network Ackerbau Lower Saxony