Field Robot Event: 2026 winners announced

Held at DLG Feldtage field exhibition 16-18 June in Bernburg, Germany; Teams apply AI and strong systems approach; Overall winner: Team Acorn from Osnabrück University, Germany

Following three days and 13 hours of in-field competition, the overall winner of the Field Robot Event 2026 has been announced: Team Acorn from Germany’s Osnabrück University, which prevailed in four challenging tasks, including navigating curved maize rows as well as plant health detection and biodiversity monitoring. The competition took place from 16–18 June at the DLG Feldtage field exhibition in Bernburg, Germany, where 16 academic teams from 10 countries competed with self-built robots under real farming conditions to demonstrate innovative, practice-oriented solutions for the future of crop production.

The international Field Robot Event was held for the fifth time at DLG Feldtage, the leading outdoor event for crop production, an exhibition organized by the non-profit DLG (German Agricultural Society), dedicated to knowledge sharing for farmers. 

“Congratulations to all the winners. You have shown that innovation in agriculture only matters if it works in the field – combining precision, efficiency and real added value for farmers,” says Dr. Anna Catharina Voges, Vice President, DLG (German Agricultural Society) and full-time arable farmer.

The overall winner across four demanding task was Team Acorn from Germany’s Osnabrück University with second and third place going to Robatic Bullseye, Wageningen University, Netherlands and FREDT, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany respectively.

Each event day focused on autonomous navigation in a maize field: Plant health detection, biodiversity monitoring, and soil spot treatment.

This year showed that success lies in the integration of mechatronics, design, and intelligent control, combining sensors, AI, and robust hardware into systems that withstand real-world agricultural conditions.

“Most of the teams are now using AI. Artificial intelligence has fundamentally leveled the playing field, since the last event just one year ago,” says Prof. Stefan Stiene, Osnabruck University of Applied Sciences.

“Because modern AI tools can instantly deliver complex, implementable software architectures that once required years of specialized IT expertise, pure coding is now widely accessible. In the end, it is system integration and robust testing that come to the fore as the defining success factor,” adds Prof. Stiene.

The teams came from ten countries, with China participating for the first time and Turkey for the second. Many universities follow a “from scratch” approach, like the FloriBot Team from Heilbronn University. “For us, building the robot is part of the learning process. Each year, a new group of students starts over, designing and building the whole software for the robot again. Winning is nice, but the real goal is learning,” said Benedict Bauer, Instructor, Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

While the first two days focused on compulsory tasks, the final day focused on a freestyle task, allowing the teams to choose a task that would reflect the robot’s competences in the field of sustainability.  The chosen tasks included FarmBeast’s hoeing with robot arm, the eventual winner, as well as the use of remote manipulation to complement strawberry harvesting; a system that integrates the industrial software Isobus with open source software; and a field robot mowing grass and feeding it to a cow.

Teams pursue different approaches: some rely on complex combinations of LiDAR, cameras and mapping systems, while others achieve robust navigation with streamlined, low-cost vision-based solutions. Mechanical designs range from articulated and Ackermann steering to omnidirectional drives and high-speed concepts. Beyond navigation, many robots also integrate crop monitoring, pest detection, real-time data analysis and targeted interventions such as spot spraying.

The jury consisted of experts from universities, engineering and agricultural organisations, companies from various countries.

Participating Teams

Acorn, Osnabrück University, Germany

AIRLab Polimi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

CAU, China Agricultural University, China

Carbonite, Schülerforschungszentrum Überlingen, Germany

FarmBeast, University of Maribor, Slovenia

FloriBot, Hochschule Heilbronn, Germany

FREDT, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany

HSM-Terra, Hochschule Schmalkalden, Germany

LCASTOR, University of Lincoln, UK

LEO Poland, Technical School of Mechanization of Agriculture and Agrotronics, Poland

Peik, NMBU Robotics, Norway

Robatic Bullseye, Wageningen University, Netherlands

RoboTO, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

SemTechno, INESC TEC by Tribe Lab, Portugal

Son of the Sun, University of Tekirdağ Namık Kemal, Turkey

TH[E] OWL, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Höxter, Germany

Held for the fifth time alongside the DLG Feldtage, the Field Robot Event is organised by the Hochschule Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, TU Braunschweig and Agrotech Valley Forum e. V. in cooperation with DLG and DLG Feldtage.

Further information: www.dlg-feldtage.de

Media contact:
Malene Conlong
+49 69 24788-237
m.conlong@dlg.org#

About DLG

With more than 30,000 members, DLG is a politically independent and non-profit organisation. DLG draws on an international network of some 3,000 food and agricultural experts. DLG operates with subsidiaries in 10 countries and also organizes over 30 regional agricultural and livestock exhibitions worldwide. DLG’s leading international exhibitions, EuroTier for livestock farming and Agritechnica for agricultural machinery, which are held every two years in Hanover, Germany, provide international impetus for the local trade fairs. Headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, DLG conducts practical trials and tests to keep its members informed of the latest developments. DLG’s sites include DLG's International Crop Production Centre, a 600-hectare test site in Bernburg-Strenzfeld, Germany and the DLG Test Centre, Europe's largest agricultural machinery test centre for Technology and Farm Inputs, located in Gross-Umstadt, Germany. DLG bridges the gap between theory and practice, as evidenced by more than 40 working groups of farmers, academics, agricultural equipment companies and organisations that continually compare advances in knowledge in specific areas such as irrigation and precision farming.

www.dlg.org