AURA - Maynooth University

The vision of the AURA project is to revolutionize agriculture by addressing the significant energy and freshwater consumption in the sector. In the USA, agriculture utilizes nearly 2% of the national energy budget, with 60% directly on-farm and 40% dedicated to fertilizer and pesticides. In Europe, agriculture constitutes 3.3% of the energy budget. Water-wise, US agriculture accounts for 42% of total freshwater withdrawals, while in the EU, estimates range from 25% to 40%, leading to water scarcity in five member states.

Enter regenerative agriculture, a transformative farming approach enhancing water retention and carbon sequestration while reducing input costs in fuel, pesticides, and fertilizers. This methodology embraces practices like conservation tillage (e.g., no-till or direct drilling), cover crops, crop rotation, and composting. Embracing regenerative agriculture necessitates a shift in machinery and the development of innovative practices, offering a unique opportunity to decarbonize agriculture, cut water usage, and facilitate precision agriculture through robotics.

The AURA project aims to use robotics and sensing technology to build out this vision by constructing a robot demonstrator for an electrified and automated large-scale robotic farming system. This system will empower the implementation of regenerative agricultural methods at a cost that is economically feasible for low-value cereal crops (less than €2,000/ha).