Robotics is being used to address agricultural challenges both on Earth and in space. But what are the potentials and the risks associated with this shift?
Robotics is gradually making its way into the most unexpected sectors, including agriculture.
Addressing labour shortage, enhancing yields, and making agriculture more sustainable are some of the challenges European agri-tech companies are trying to tackle. But can robotics truly revolutionise the world of agriculture?
To answer these questions, Euronews Tech Talks travelled to Oslo, Norway, to meet Lars Grimstad, CTO and co-founder of Saga Robotics, and spoke with other professors and engineers across Europe.
The role of robotics in Earth agriculture
Agriculture is a difficult field in which to deploy robots.
“We deal with living organisms, whether these are plants or animals,” Ioannis Athanasiadis, professor of data science and artificial intelligence (AI) at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, told Euronews Next. “But also, we have harsh conditions in the fields, so it's less controllable,” he added.
Despite these challenges, agriculture remains an appealing sector for robotics applications.
“We can organise our activities with higher precision and reduce the use of chemicals,” Athanasiadis explained. “But this also goes hand in hand with the ageing of the farming population.”
In recent decades, agri-tech companies have been investing in this sector. Among them is Grimstad’s Saga Robotics, a Norwegian company with clients as far away as the United States.
Its flagship product is Thorvald, an electric, self-driving robot used in strawberry fields and vineyards. The arch-shaped machine is built out of modules and is deployed at night to treat the common and destructive plant disease of powdery mildew.
“We have UV lights, which kind of destroy the mildew but do not harm the plant in any way,” Grimstad told Euronews Next. “We use UV lights so we don’t have to use chemicals, so it helps the farmers reduce the risk of losing crops to mildew.”
On top of reducing the need for chemicals, Thorvald can also predict crop yield. “We use AI to find the strawberries in the images that the robot captures, and we use an AI to assess the ripeness of the fruit.”
AI has not left agricultural robots indifferent. “I think sustainability comes hand in hand with AI and robotics in agriculture,” Athanasiadis said.
However, AI in agricultural robots can also involve risks. In an article published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, researchers highlight that cyberattacks can be a source of alarm, beyond safety concerns related to accidental failures.
Moreover, applying AI in agriculture could further widen economic inequalities, as people in the Global South are likely to be excluded from its benefits, the study suggested.
“The problem is who owns the machines, and that’s the real critical thing,” Stefano Stramigioli, a professor of advanced robotics at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, told Euronews Next. “If all these machines are owned by private companies, we’re going to have a big problem.”
The role of robotics in space agriculture
Similar challenges and opportunities can be found in another agricultural frontier: space.
“Although space agriculture is still an emerging field, robotics already plays a fundamental role,” Giorgio Boscheri, an engineer at Thales Alenia Space Italia, told Euronews Next.
“In the current missions, robotics systems aren’t farmhands in the traditional sense, but they are more critical to build the conditions that make agriculture in space possible,” he continued, explaining that robots focus on systems like illumination control.
For now, astronauts are capable of growing a few types of plants on the International Space Station, but to sustain a permanent presence on the Moon and long exploration missions, for example to Mars, they will need to grow more food.
Cesare Lobascio, an expert in space exploration and science at Thales Alenia Space Italia, explained that once space agriculture becomes more advanced—with plants growing directly on planetary surfaces—robots will take over the agricultural work.
“We’ll be talking about several square metres of production, and in that case, automation will be important,” he said.
