European Space Agency: Commercial Applications of Space-Enabled Robotics: Agriculture

This call is part of the European Space Agency‘s umbrella of “Commercial Applications of Space-Enabled Robotics” thematic call for proposals.

This Call for Proposals invites the submission of proposals for feasibility studies and demonstration projects for services that combine the use of satellite technologies and robotics in downstream services for Agriculture applications.

‘Robotics’ is here defined to include physical robots, autonomous drones, machines and vehicles, and precursory solutions or those that enable these (e.g. perception and navigation systems for autonomous vehicle services, connectivity solutions to enable tele-operated robotics).

The following application domains, or others duly identified by industry, may be considered:

• Automated, high-throughput, field phenotyping using sensors, satellite technology, drones and robotics, to support researchers and breeders in selecting desirable crop traits and optimising for crop productivity.
• Use of coordinated fleets of small robots for tasks traditionally undertaken by large tractors, for reduction of excessive soil compaction and greater deployment of precision farming.
• Robotic weed mapping and treatment, leveraging precise positioning, machine vision, and environmentally-friendly treatment mechanisms (mechanical, laser-based, reduced quantity precision-spraying) to identify and remove unwanted plants without causing damage to crops.
• Selective harvesting of crops, including validation of attained crop quality thresholds, and harvesting of target crops without unintentional damage.
• Robotic systems for improved tending of livestock and aquaculture farms to improve animal welfare and environmental sustainability.
• Robotic systems tailored towards atypical farming terrain, such as heterogeneous and hilly topographies.

Value of space

Satellite positioning can provide coarse to high accuracy positioning information to robots, vehicles, machines, and drones operating in outdoor spaces. This can be used for navigation, geo- and timestamping of collected data, time-synchronisation of networked machines, and/or determination of speed and heading.  Augmentation of GNSS can offer higher positioning accuracies for certain use-cases via solutions such as Galileo HAS (High Accuracy Service) or GNSS RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) solutions, with the selection dependent on the service requirements.

Satellite communications provide data, video and voice communications and may add value to applications implemented in the following service provision scenarios:

• Environments that have inadequate, unreliable, compromised, or altogether absent mobile cellular connectivity.
• Mobile services that operate across regions with varying cellular connectivity quality (good in certain areas, poor in others) and require continuous coverage and availability.
• Services that have high security, robustness and resilience requirements may benefit from satellite communications for redundancy in compromised or unforeseen circumstances.

Satellite Earth Observation – it is expected that satellite earth observation could support robotic solutions at the service level i.e., providing complementary or enabling datasets to support the activities of the autonomous systems. This could be through situational awareness data to support the navigation of a robot, or use of earth observation data to inform, initiate, or halt deployment of an autonomous system. Satellite earth observation data could refer to air quality measurements, thermal heat signatures, optical, radar, meteorology, or combinations thereof.

Spaceflight Technology – Spin-Outs – applications of robotics developed for use in space (and other astronomical objects) that also have commercial applications on Earth, i.e. Spaceflight Spin-Outs, are also considered eligible. This could relate to tele-robotic solutions and algorithms (perception, planning, control…) developed for autonomy of space robotics that have applications on Earth, or otherwise.

Eligibility

This opportunity is open to companies that intend to develop space-enabled services and products related, but not restricted, to the topics of relevance outlined above. You must be based in an ESA member state (this includes the UK).  Authorisation of Funding letters from the corresponding National Delegations are required as part of the application.

The initiative is open to the submission of proposals for Feasibility Studies and Demonstration Projects:

• Feasibility Studies – which provide the preparatory framework to identify, analyse and define new potentially sustainable services (max €500,000 per project, this can cover up to 80% of costs depending on business size)
• Demonstration Projects – dedicated to the implementation and demonstration of pre-operational services (case by case assessment, can cover up to 80% of costs depending on business size)

Benefits and funding

ESA’s offer includes:

• zero-equity funding (50-80% depending on SME Status and Member State Approval)
• technical and commercial guidance
• access to our network and partners
• ESA brand credibility

Support

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Space team or our Agrifood team.