Manifesto of Robotic Permaculture - The Future of Agriculture
We face a series of global challenges. These include food security, biodiversity, and the necessity of sustainable agriculture. Robotic permaculture presents a promising solution to address the current issues in our ecosystem.
The Vision: From Fields to Forests!
Conventional agriculture, which relied on monocultures for decades, has depleted the soil and excessively used pesticides and fertilizers. This has led to soil degradation and a loss of biodiversity. In this crisis, permaculture shows itself as a solution. It has the potential to regenerate the soil, sequester carbon, and yield a wide array of crops. These permacultures are designed to mimic natural ecosystems, increasing their resilience and adaptability.
The term “permaculture” was coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and is a fusion of “permanent” and “agriculture.” This signifies that permaculture aims to develop practical agricultural systems that allow for the sustainable use of land. Permaculture is based on the diverse, complex, and productive interrelationships and patterns found in nature.
Permaculture encompasses a wide range of agricultural techniques developed and practiced on select farms around the world since the 1970s. Some successful examples can be found at Auenhof in Feldbach, Switzerland, and on Krameterhof in Lungau, Austria. So far, such forms of agriculture were highly labor-intensive, especially when compared to conventional industrial land use.
However, we are now at a turning point. With the significant advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics, we can implement permaculture without direct human intervention. Large tracts of land can be rapidly restructured to sustain humans, wildlife, and flora. Robotics and AI are crucial for scalable permaculture, offering precision, efficiency, 24/7 operation, data-driven decision-making, and adaptability. Robots can alleviate labor shortages, conserve resources, and implement sustainable practices, making agriculture more future-proof and food of higher quality.
Implementation
Developing robotic and automated permaculture doesn’t present a major hurdle. Drones for surveying large areas are already commercially available. Algorithms for plant recognition and analysis have been established for years. Multi-terrain robots are now capable of performing all the necessary tasks for permaculture. The central requirement needed is the integration of AI to orchestrate the individual robot missions and evaluate their work.
This AI needs to be trained to generate an optimal permaculture model based on topographical, geological, and biological measurements. Further it has to generate comprehensive plans and individual robot missions. In a third step the executed missions need to be evaluated to serve as a basis for the next misions. To test the effectiveness and adaptability of this AI, a test plot is required as a laboratory.
Conclusion
Robotic permaculture offers innovative solutions to the pressing issues of food security, biodiversity, and sustainable agriculture. To realize this vision of the future, gradual changes are necessary in agriculture. Methods, management, landscape, and the work of farmers are changing, and new incentives and conditions must be established.