OEL | Hogeschool Saxion

Climate change is causing dramatic shifts from the current climate regions, with the Netherlands, and in particular the eastern Netherlands, drying up. That is why the Netherlands has also designated Agriculture, food & water as its mission. The project consortium wants to use the Robotics key technology to investigate how smart adaptive systems can provide a local climate-adaptive way of vegetable cultivation in the Netherlands that is scalable towards North-West Europe. The initial focus is on the use for private vegetable gardens and ecological agriculture.

research question

What are the possibilities for smart climate-adaptive systems for vegetable cultivation in desiccated areas?

background information

The food supply as we have set it up in the West and the world is on the decline. Global price drives ensure large-scale monoculture with crops and / or animals that are more susceptible to germs. The extreme weather changes caused by climate change have very large-scale consequences for agricultural yields all over the world. Research shows that some crops yield as much as 20% less harvest at 1 degrees Celsius and even collapse at 4 degrees. Droughts, floods and crop failures result in streams of refugee mass immigration and even the US military calls climate change the greatest threat of the 21st century. However, in these types of considerations the motto is: “improve the world, start with yourself” and “make it small and manageable”.

It is just as difficult for citizens as it is for CEOs of large companies to break free from the existing structures and methods of food supply and related global transport movements. There is a natural tendency to make the long-term building even larger in terms of efficiency. However, as is clear above, this is not more effective.

A true paradigm shift is necessary. Not bigger, but smaller. So small that no more transport is needed. So diverse that no chemical pesticides are needed anymore. So small that the Westerner can grow his own vegetables, but so handy and easy that it does not come at the expense of his working hours. As handy as ICT makes possible for us and as easy as robotisation can make it.

project approach

The increasing use of drones for precision agriculture and inspection & maintenance has undesirable effects. The flying drones produce annoying noises and thus cause noise pollution. This has an effect on nature (animals run away) and on humans (noise nuisance and thus stress and health problems). Silent drones are also desirable for use in the security domain, because they reduce the perceptibility of drones by criminals and increase the chance of being caught. In short, technology is needed to make drones quieter. The project thus contributes directly from the KET Digital Innovations \ Robotics to the missions Agriculture, Water and Food respectively, and the missions Health & Care and Safety.

The main objective is answered within this project by the deliverables from the following sub-objectives:

Research into the urgency of noise problems within these application domains;
Develop proof-of-concept silent drone technologies;
Verification and Validation testing on the indoor and outdoor DroneDome on ConnectU;
Developing (new) forms of cooperation.

The project is unique and there are no technologies that significantly reduce noise. The knowledge must be converted into proof-of-concepts that make the technology the first Minimum Viable Product suitable for market evaluations.