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Systematic sustainability assessments are necessary to quantify the sustainability improvements of innovative digital technologies in agricultural systems. However, the existing sustainability assessments differ in terms of the range of the life-cycle considered, the sustainability dimensions included and the indicators used, making the results contingent on the technology, the application context observed in the respective study. Therefore, the current state of knowledge about the sustainability potential of digital technologies in agriculture remains scattered over various individual case studies. We systematically review existing sustainability assessments of digital technologies in the agri-food sector, including not only all forms of precision agriculture technologies and decision support systems but also innovative technologies such as autonomous decision-making systems, artificial intelligence applications and robotics and sensing. Out of more than 600 papers addressing sustainability of digital technology in agriculture, we identified 26 papers offering a systematic sustainability assessment covering at least one of the three sustainability dimensions. We find that studies focused on assessing the sustainability impacts of precision agriculture and robot-based technologies using mainly life cycle sustainability approaches. Differences in the approaches to sustainability measurement are evident, making comparisons of the sustainability potential of different technologies with the same objective difficult. Keywords: Agri-food sector, digital technologies, sustainability assessment

The objective of this on-farm study was to determine if flocks showing feather damage and/or cannibalism would have a higher fear response to the novel object (NOT) and the association between different housing and welfare parameters on results of the NOT. Therefore, 16 flocks were observed during the laying period in Germany. In total, there were six barns, seven free-range, and three organic flocks. The plumage and integument condition of 50 birds of each flock were evaluated at 4 different times during the laying period (V1: 18th to 23rd week of life, V2: 26th to 35th week of life, V3: 49th to 57th week of life, V4: 61st to 73rd week of life). At the same observation times, the NOT was performed in the flocks (at four different locations per visit time). Based on the average number of hens gathered around the novel object (NO) within the period of two minutes, conclusions can be made about the fearfulness of the flock. The present study shows that the more fearful a flock was, the more frequent feather damage (p < 0.001) and cannibalism (p < 0.01) occurred. Age and flock size were associated with fearfulness. Fearfulness of hens increased with the increasing age of hens (p < 0.001) and with an increasing flock size (p < 0.001). Hens of white feather color appeared to be more fearful than brown hens (p < 0.001). Hens kept on barn farms showed significantly lower numbers of hens around the novel object (p < 0.001) than on free-range farms, which possibly indicates that having permanent access to outdoor space generally appears to be associated with the fearfulness of a flock.

In this on-farm study, 16 flocks in Germany were monitored for plumage and skin conditions as indicators of feather pecking and cannibalism. Furthermore, their behavior was monitored in a novel object test. During the laying period, the monitored flocks were visited four times. The novel object test can be used to assess the fearfulness of a flock. The average number of hens gathered around the novel object gives an indication of the fearfulness of a flock. The study indicates that an increase in fearfulness of the flock is associated with an increase in feather damage and cannibalism. Fearfulness also increased with hen age and flock size. White hens showed greater fearful behavior in contrast to brown hens. Hens on barn farms showed a higher fear response than hens in free-range farms.

This work attempts to reduce the barriers towards long-term autonomy of mobile outdoor robots by identifying and classifying key difficulties in such a context and developing a fully integrated monitoring and resolution framework capable of overcoming typical limitations for those systems. Experimental evaluation of the proposed framework in a simulation environment indicates a drastically improved resilience with respect to the identified challenges.

Sensorsysteme und Feldrobotik sind sowohl wichtige Hilfsmittel als auch Innovationstreiber zur Gestaltung einer nachhaltigeren Landwirtschaft. Insbesondere der Einsatz bildgebender Sensoren mit räumlicher und zeitlicher Auflösung hat in Verbindung mit dem landwirtschaftlichen Wissen das Potenzial, ökologische und ökonomische Zielkonflikte aufzulösen. Die Feldrobotik hat aktuell eine hohe Dynamik im Bereich innovativer Lösungsansätze und erster im Markt befindlicher Produkte. Im Bereich der Systemintegration in den landwirtschaftlichen Betrieb sowie in der Weiterbildung und im Service besteht noch erheblicher Handlungsbedarf für die Feldrobotik, auch ist eine stärkere Fokussierung auf den Nutzen der Systeme für signifikante Marktanteile erforderlich.