Digitization of agriculture

From GPS-based and sensor-driven work machines, drone applications to robotics: Agriculture is becoming a digital industry. As a survey of the digital association Bitkom showed, one out of two farmers already operates with some form of smart farming – meaning the use of digital information and communication technologies. Intelligent networking helps to make agriculture more efficient and ecological. The opportunities offered by progress and the hurdles that still exist will be discussed by experts in the field during the VDI conference "Smart Farming".

In modern agricultural machinery, steering and driver assistance systems are taking control of the steering wheel, while new camera, lidar and sensor technologies as well as GPS capture the environment and calculate the optimum lane. In addition, the sensors record data on soil conditions, sowing or the state of harvest and transmit the measured values directly to a computer. The latter in turn uses the data to precisely calculate the corresponding fertilizer requirements. In addition, agricultural robots recognize pests and apply targeted measures against weeds. This enables optimal growth conditions, while at the same time improving environmental compatibility.

In the long run, these new technologies will enable resource efficient agriculture, with rising yields and decreasing costs, while being environmentally friendly. However, this progress requires substantial investments. In addition, the question of data security needs to be considered. How to deal with Big Data and which framework conditions have to be created in order to increase public acceptance for modern agriculture are topics for the international experts at the VDI conference "Smart Farming".

Major topics are:

• Solutions for Digital Farming 4.0
• Reality Check – Bringing Big Data and Analytics to Agronomist
• Farming Automation: Is it ready for Farmers?
• Building a Computer Vision Research Vehicle for Agriculture
• Autonomous Vehicles – The next Level of Smart Farming?
• M2M Communication for agrarian Use Cases
• Development of Test Standards for agricultural Technology
• + Interactive Round Table Discussions

In addition, event participants may benefit from the parallel conferences "Connected Off-Highway Machines" and "Autonomous Trucks", which they can also visit at no extra cost. The events address the impact of digital transformation on mobile machinery, from construction, agriculture, forestry, mining as well as on trucking and logistics. All events are held in English.

Visitors to the 76th International VDI Conference "LAND.TECHNIK" in Leinfelden-Echterdingen near Stuttgart on 20 – 21 November 2018 will be able to find out more about innovations in agricultural technology and current results from product development and research in agricultural engineering.

Smart Farming: Date and Location

10 – 11 April 2018

Crowne Plaza Duesseldorf – Neuss ex. Swissôtel, Duesseldorf