EF Südwest

The goal of the project EF Südwest is the practical use of a standardized and decentralized digital data infrastructure that is connected to the Digital Agricultural Portal (DAPrlp) of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate. Specifically, agricultural practice is used to demonstrate how existing data can be used flexibly in conjunction with modern technology across all stages of the agricultural value chain, e.g. efficiency in the used resources or labor, simplicity of documentation, protection of the environment and incensement of sustainability. The EF should also develop solutions that contribute to increasing data security and the resilience of agricultural value creation systems. Thereby, the data sovereignty lies with the agricultural enterprises. The use of the digital infrastructure is to be expanded in such a way that machine and logistics processes are controlled more efficiently using standardized data exchange formats. The planned use cases consciously cover all agricultural production areas in RP.

The TU Kaiserslautern is involved in the project with the two research groups, the Institute for Radio Communication and Navigation (Prof. Schotten) and Robotics Research Lab (Prof. Berns). Using the example of the management of vineyards on steep slopes, a prototype robotic system is to be developed that can be used for work steps such as inspection, spraying or weed removal. For this purpose, an innovative carrier system should be equipped with modern, already existing implements. The Institute of Radio Communication and Navigation is responsible for the development of a context management system. Local 5G networks are used to load information relevant to the work processes from the cloud and to transfer the inspection and status data to the cloud.