Soil Monitoring for Sustainable Development

GMV recently began the first phase of the ARSH (Autonomous Robotics Soil Health) project for monitoring soil quality, primarily in Northern Ireland. The project is being developed within the framework of activities of the UK’s Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), with financing from the British government's Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI).

The purpose of the project is to collect data on soil health to seek out and implement more sustainable farming processes, with a positive impact on the environment through the reduction of the carbon footprint caused by the agri-food industry. The project covers the geographical area of Northern Ireland, where geological and climate processes have given the region a wide variety of soils.

GMV’s role in ARSH is in integrating robotics and artificial intelligence techniques in the monitoring process, significantly reducing the costs that are currently involved in analyzing soil topography. The preliminary results of this study will be presented in March 2022.

The AFBI is a multidiscipline organization dedicated to research and development, primarily in three fields of action: natural and marine environment; plant, animal and human health and welfare; and sustainable livestock production.