Agricultural Engineering

The agriculture group of the LSE department studies various aspects of technology and data assisted farming. Most of the topics are related to smart farming, precision or digital farming, which are umbrella terms for the research framework.

• Precision farming incorporates machinery to do the field work, sensors to measure crop states, models to predict plant growth and information systems to manage farm operation. Aim is to achieve better management of farming inputs and take steps towards sustainable farming by means of advanced technologies and modeling. Research activities are related to crop farming, but also precision livestock farming, energy use optimization at farm level.
• Smart farming includes technologies for connected machinery, real time sensing, variable rate control, yield mapping, nutrient and disease management, weed management and production management. The research activities are done both in labs, in fields and in simulation environments.
• Intelligent machines are the scope of modern agricultural machine engineering, which also involves automation, control engineering, robotics and embedded systems to engineer future machines for crop farming.
• Vertical farming deals with indoor farming, which allows higher production of plants in automated facilities using water, light, nutrients in optimized way by incorporating crop modeling.