Agricultural Industry Initiatives on Autonomy: How collaborative initiatives of VDMA and AEF can facilitate complexity in domain crossing harmonization needs

TL;DR

This paper surveys collaborative initiatives by VDMA and AEF to address autonomy in agriculture, focusing on the Agri-ODD as a unifying framework for functional architecture, work context, and sensor testing. It identifies regulatory gaps (e.g., ISO 18497) and describes two major efforts—the sensor-testing working group and the AUT interoperability project—to advance testing standards and cross-system communication. The contributions include a proposed development workflow combining top-down architecture with bottom-up standard mapping, and a roadmap toward ISO-level standardization and liability mapping. The work has practical impact by enabling safer, more interoperable autonomous farming technologies and informing regulatory and standardization efforts.

Abstract

The agricultural industry is undergoing a significant transformation with the increasing adoption of autonomous technologies. Addressing complex challenges related to safety and security, components and validation procedures, and liability distribution is essential to facilitate the adoption of autonomous technologies. This paper explores the collaborative groups and initiatives undertaken to address these challenges. These groups investigate inter alia three focal topics: 1) describe the functional architecture of the operational range, 2) define the work context, i.e., the realistic scenarios that emerge in various agricultural applications, and 3) the static and dynamic detection cases that need to be detected by sensor sets. Linked by the Agricultural Operational Design Domain (Agri-ODD), use case descriptions, risk analysis, and questions of liability can be handled. By providing an overview of these collaborative initiatives, this paper aims to highlight the joint development of autonomous agricultural systems that enhance the overall efficiency of farming operations.

Figures (1)

• Figure 1: Interplay of groups and initiatives that contribute to agricultural autonomy systems, all linked by the Agricultural Operational Design Domain (Agri-ODD).