The European Union has set itself the challenge of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 through “The European Green Deal,” in which the environment and agriculture are key areas. In this regard, 25 countries signed the declaration “A Smart and Sustainable Digital Future for European Agriculture and Rural Areas,” which emphasizes reducing the environmental impact of agricultural activities and enhancing production safety through the use of digital technologies, where robotics combined with artificial intelligence are essential. This has led to the concept of “Smart Agriculture” or Agriculture 5.0, a model that is difficult for SMEs in the agricultural sector to adopt due to the technological risk it entails—resulting from technologies that are not yet sufficiently mature, coupled with the high investment required.This situation is particularly acute in the case of robotic technologies that require highly customized solutions; therefore, it will be the challenge that the consortium for this project must address collectively.  

The consortium is led by University of Málaga is made up of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU),  Miguel Hernández University of Elche, University of Huelva, University of the Algarve, University of Limoges, Andalusia Technology Park, Data Colab, NERA, Aquitaine Robotics, OSFARM and ELATEC.

https://interreg-sudoe.eu/en/proyecto-interreg/agrobotics-ditwins/

Against this backdrop, the objective of this project proposal is to create an ecosystem capable of identifying agricultural processes that, through robotics, can become more environmentally sustainable, and to design services and protocols (based on living labs with digital twins) that will lead to their implementation. The aim is to involve SMEs in the agricultural sector of the SUDOE region—both producers and service providers—in the Agriculture 5.0 model.

In order to achieve the main objective of the project, the consortium has defined the following specific objectives that will lead to different particular results:

- Development of a multisectoral and transregional map of agricultural SMEs to identify critical processes that can be modified through the use of robotics-related technologies in order to achieve circularity goals aimed at reducing environmental impact and increasing the efficiency of their processes.

- Design, development, and validation of a pilot program aimed at SMEs in the agricultural sector—both in production and services—for the design of technology-based solutions using robotics.   The necessary protocols for its implementation will be established, based on the use of digital twins, training programs, and coaching to facilitate participation in innovation calls for proposals.

- Creation of an ecosystem that shares knowledge, best practices, and the action plans developed during the implementation of the pilot program,  to  make  the  agricultural  sector  more  sustainable  through  the  incorporation  of  robotics-based  technologies,  by  participating  in  international  calls  for  proposals  for  innovation  projects.

This project has been funded by the European Union under the INT-INTERREG SUDOE 2024 program.