We are Agroecology Lab Ltd, an R&D-focused farming enterprise near Bristol operating a one-acre agroecological site. We integrate sustainable horticulture (e.g. mixed salad production for local restaurants) with renewable energy and open-source agricultural robotics development.
Our work includes developing autonomous field robots for tasks such as precision weeding and harvesting, alongside developing LoRa mesh and RTK-based communication networks for robust telemetry in rural settings.
We are keen to contribute real-world use cases, test scenarios, and field conditions from small-scale, diversified agriculture, and to collaborate on shaping technologies that improve resilience and communication in remote agroecological systems.
The problem
In agricultural robotics the “small rover trap” burns out both capital and talent, and because the IP is siloed, each new team starts from scratch. Fragmented development efforts and proprietary systems prevent efficient innovation and scaling.
Aim
An open, modular hardware + software platform for agricultural robotics — enabling farmers, startups, and researchers to innovate without constantly rebuilding the basics (chassis, drive system, ROS2 integration).
- An open-source agricultural robotics platform integrating key software projects into a coherent containerised stack.
- Documenting two open hardware reference platforms running the stack, a small development rover and a full scale agricultural rover.
Benefits
-
Farmers: affordable, non-vendor-locked automation.
-
Startups: reduced burn, faster prototyping, focus on unique value.
-
Researchers: reproducibility + collaboration.
-
Industry: larger ecosystem, interoperability, reduced fragmentation.
Core ROS2 Packages
Linrobot2 hardware Provides base hardware abstraction, sensor & motor driver integration, and already bundles Nav2 (localisation, mapping, planning).
ublox_dgnss UBLOX UBX messaging, for ZED-X20P, ZED-F9P and ZED-F9R devices.
Safety
The proposed motor drivers have e-stop functionality.
An array of LD240c can trip the Estop. Failsafe communications to the array.
Physical emergency stop buttons will also be included
Development hardware
Electronics
| Components | Description | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| OCTA 64-bit ARM Cortex-A55 CPU up to 1.8GHz. 4GB, 2TOPS | 1 | |
| STM Microcontroller with Canbus | A microcontroller board for uROS | 1 |
| Carrier for H7 | To design | 1 |
| Sparkfun GNSS/RTK | Accurate positioning | 2 |
40cm Rover
A 1/4 scale development platform for testing and validation
| Components | Description | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Driver | Mosquino | 2 |
| Electric wheel | DDSM115 BLDC | 4 |
| Suspension | Aliexpress | 4 |
| Chassis structure | 1515 extrusion | many |
| Chassis connections | 1515 corner | Many |
1.5m Rover
Skid steer Functional 4×4 rover for farm tasks
| Components | Description | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| SimpleFOC canbus drivers | RP2350 | 2 |
| 500w electric wheel | 40cm Lunyee | 4 |
| Suspension | Fatbike fork | 4 |
| Chassis structure | Aluminum tube | many |
| Chassis connections | keeclamp aluminum | Many |
Project v1.0 – Human following super-barrow
The first project is to follow a human around, farmers, particularly small scale ones spend a lot of time walking, carrying things. “People spend as much as 20%-30% of their time picking in the field actually walking up and down these picked rows” Burrow
Project v2.0 – Mechanical weeding between crop rows
The project is to test and validate the Visual servoing code and integrate it into Farmbot-ROS code. Using visual servoing as the local planner & Farmbot-ROS as the global planner / GPS waypoint follower.
The robot will pull simple mechanical hoe between the crop rows
Project v3.0 – Automated charging
Automatic charging. Development of Navigation and mechanical components to enable the robot to return to a charging dock
Project v4.0 – Delta weeding
This will enhance the weeding capability using a AI driven Delta robot to enable more accurate weeding
Project v5.0 – Harvesting baby leaf
Using Quick cut greens harvester attachment
Project v6.0 – Open data publishing
Publishing open data
Papers & reference code
gnss-stereo-inertial-fusion
StellaVslam
Vins-fusion