The tools developed during the project contribute to the development of an agriculture model that combines environmental, economical and social sustainability. First, they support small farms practising agroecology and polyculture. Indeed, exploitation studies showed that the ROMI Rover was one of the only weeding solutions to be adapted to vegetable microfarms’ configuration. Moreover, it remains relatively affordable compared to most robotic weeding solutions. In addition, the Farmer Dashboard is one of the only technologies to focus on plants’ growth monitoring. Yet, it can help vegetable, strawberry, ornamentals and herbal/aromatic plants producers under greenhouses in smoothing their production and reducing intrants use. The use of sensing and advanced modelling capabilities in ROMI can therefore support the management of complex farming environments. As such, ROMI tools can foster productivity and uptake of agroecological practices, including in microfarms.
ROMI devices also support the development of plant research, which implies analysing plants’ characteristics (phenotyping). Automatic phenotyping devices currently commercialised tend to be of a high throughput and expensive, thus reserved to phenotyping professionals. Yet, the 3D plant imager is medium throughput and more affordable. It can therefore be used by other types of scientists, including those studying small/medium size plants. The Farmer dashboard could also foster plant research, notably in experimentation platforms. Scientists doing varietal selection, for example, closely monitor plants’ growth by hand. However, devices automatising plants’ data collection are more rapid and reliable than manual data collection. The 3D plant imager and the Farmer Dashboard can therefore support plant research in laboratories and experimentation centres.
Finally, the ROMI tools (hardware and software) are available under free licence to have the widest impact possible. This model facilitates access to results to small farms worldwide and facilitates the collaboration between farmers, scientists, engineers, and industry. On top of fostering the development of sustainable farm models and plant research, ROMI therefore developed, and will continue to develop, synergies between them.
