Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob – Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production

Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production

Food, feed, fiber, and fuel: Crop farming plays an essential role for the future of humanity and our planet. The environmental footprint of agriculture needs to be reduced: less input of chemicals like herbicides and fertilizer and other limited resources like water or energy. Simultaneously, the decline in arable land and climate change pose additional constraints like drought, heat, and other extreme weather events.

Achieving sustainable crop production with limited resources is a task of immense proportions. In order to achieve this, the University of Bonn together with Forschungszentrum Jülich conducts research in the Cluster of Excellence “PhenoRob – Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production” to develop methods and new technologies that observe, analyze, better understand and specifically treat plants. Our research focuses on improving the fundamental understanding of all relevant parameters like plant growth, soil, biodiversity, or atmosphere. PhenoRob, the only Cluster of Excellence in agriculture in Germany, aims at addressing these issues: Change crop production by optimizing breeding and farming management using new technologies.