Autonomous mowing and selective green space management: robotics for biodiversity

The Netherlands has 4.2 million hectares of land. Half of it is mowed regularly: roadsides, dikes, fields, solar parks, ditch banks and sports fields. That work requires many people, while personnel is becoming increasingly scarce. At the same time, there is growing pressure to manage these areas not only more efficiently, but also more ecologically cleverly. Within the cluster Autonomous Green Management, Batenburg Beenen from Heerenveen is working on technology that addresses both challenges.

"Our ambition is to create order in a world of chaos," says Thom Verwater, robotics innovation manager. "Whether it's weed control in fields or mowing roadsides: with robotics and AI, you can do it much more precisely than a human ever could."

Seven years ago, the agricultural autonomous journey began with a request from Andela Techniek and Innovation: the machine builder for biological weed control. Arable farmers wondered if this could also be made autonomous. Andela found a solution to that together with Batenburg Beenen. "That's just as well," Verwater explains. "Because anyone who wants to control weeds without chemicals has to lie on a machine and traverse endless rows of beds. Heavy and monotonous work, often performed by migrant workers. Hardly scalable, moreover."

Batenburg Beenen already had a strong background in robotization, from industrial robots for Philips to laboratory robots for FrieslandCampina. They combined that knowledge with new AI techniques. "Then the question arose: can we use artificial intelligence to distinguish between crops and weeds?" says Verwater.

Today thirty to forty people work purely on autonomous robots, proprietary AI models and software platforms that make machines smarter step by step.

What distinguishes autonomous systems from an ordinary mower is that they can observe. With cameras and AI, a machine recognizes which plants are there, whether there are nests in the grass, and which species are protected. "If you do drive a mower through a roadside, you can also see what's there," says Verwater. "You can leave flowers in place, recognize nests or specifically remove invasive species."

This changes mowing from a coarse maintenance job to targeted management. Instead of cutting everything short once a year, a machine can determine per square meter what will and will not be mowed. This offers new opportunities to protect biodiversity, an issue that is increasingly higher on the agenda of governments and site managers.

Batenburg Beenen's software platform allows machines to first function autonomously and then become increasingly smart via remote updates. "Similar to how a smartphone updates its software," explains Verwater.

The market for autonomous green space management is huge, but no company can serve it alone. That is exactly why the Autonomous Green Management cluster is valuable to Batenburg Beenen.

Collaborating with Vector Machines on navigation technology. Other partners, such as Bos Bolsward, sell mowing arms and have the customers, but are not yet working on autonomous technology. "If everyone picks up a part of the puzzle, you can move forward much faster together," Verwater says.

The cluster also helps companies jointly address legal and regulatory issues. Autonomous mowing along a highway or on a dike requires CE approvals, safety protocols and cooperation with governments. "It is very complicated to go through that process on your own. Together it works much betterl."

The knowledge is there, the machine builders are there and the demand is growing. "If you bring those forces together, you can build a real center for autonomous green management here," Verwater says. "Technology can free up people who now spend their entire working day on a mower."

This helps address staff shortages while making management more precise and sustainable.

Wondering what else is happening in the Autonomous Green Management cluster?