2025 RoboCollect

Keeping livestock on pasture and in open stables is particularly animal-friendly and is now also socially desirable. These systems are increasingly finding their way into agricultural practice, particularly in cattle farming. However, one problem that has not yet been solved is the high concentration of manure, particularly in areas close to stables (driveways, waiting areas, standing pastures, etc.), which leads to high levels of unwanted inputs into the soil and also causes relevant emissions. While technical aids already exist for paved areas in and around the barn (slatted scrapers, sweepers and, more recently, battery-powered manure removal robots), no solutions are yet available for unpaved outdoor areas. On the one hand, the chassis and collection devices are only designed for paved areas, and on the other hand, the devices only work according to an area-based system, but not with a detection of the actual point manure fall, which would then severely limit their area performance in outdoor areas, especially with the limited loading capacity of the collection device.

As an innovative solution, a freely orientated, all-terrain manure collection robot is to be developed, which has a collection device that also works on uneven terrain, recognizes and collects manure piles individually with the help of digital image evaluation and returns them to the nutrient cycle (e.g. slurry cellar, manure slab or biogas plant) in a defined manner. Since a spatial orientation (GPS position) is to be integrated, areas with a high manure load can also be mapped and, if necessary, temporarily blocked for the animals for regeneration, and this information can also be used via a machine learning approach for route optimization (e.g. preferred patrolling on frequently soiled areas) in order to increase the area output.

Funding: BLE

Partner:

digital workbench gmbh

St.-Gangolf-Str.2

85139 Wettstetten

www.digital-workbench.de