High-tech meets garden monument: A robot will soon do the watering in Pillnitz

A watering robot will make gardening in Pillnitz Palace Park easier. Researchers from the Barkhausen Institute and TU Dresden have developed a unique prototype. From the end of August 2024, it will be making its first test rounds in the landmarked park.

The prototype of a semi-autonomous robot for watering is currently undergoing its first test runs in Pillnitz Palace Park. During the three-year development phase, eight project team members from the Barkhausen Institute gGmbH and TU Dresden designed and built the prototype together with the gardening team from Pillnitz and managers from State Palaces, Castles and Gardens of Saxony gGmbH (SBG). Dr. Christian Striefler, Managing Director of SBG: "We are proud and delighted to be able to take an absolutely innovative step in Pillnitz Palace Park. We are the first German palace administration to use a robot for watering. This is a huge milestone and a great success for SBG and our climate change project. I would like to express my gratitude to all the partners and participants who have driven the development of the robot forward with so much expertise and creativity.” Climate change has significantly increased the effort involved in watering. This is where the watering robot comes into play and will relieve the burden of watering potted plants in the future. Together with the gardeners, all functions will be tested on site over the next few weeks. “Climate change has increased our horticultural care requirements by 25 to 30 percent. We therefore need innovative solutions to support and relieve our team of gardeners. The robot will be a particularly spectacular solution,” says Dr. Claudius Wecke, Head of Gardens at SBG. The development of the robot for watering is a key objective of SBG's “Climate change in historic gardens” project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB).

The prototype: Facts, figures and data
“Having robots drive autonomously from A to B only takes seconds. However, the development took months” summarizes Markus Böhme, Chief Engineer and Associate Researcher at the Barkhausen Institute. Paul Auerbach, Maximilian Matthé, Jens Kugelmann, Christoph Schubert and Sebastian Vorberg from the Barkhausen Institute gGmbH are working on the project with him. Marek Holovac and Julius Schlicht from the Chair of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Dresden are also involved in the project. Knowledge from the disciplines of electrical engineering, software development, mechanical engineering, landscape architecture, design and forestry has been incorporated into the project. The robot consists of 200 screw connections, 100 meters of 3D printing filament, 50 meters of aluminum profiles, 30 meters of cable, 15 meters of hose and eight sensors. The water tank has a capacity of 400 liters. The robot can pull 700 kilograms, weighs half a ton and travels at walking speed. The development costs amount to approx. EUR 630,000. The Free State of Saxony provided 10 percent of this funding. While the first prototype is being tested, an identical second model is already being assembled.

A robot in a garden monument - how does that work?
The robot must be optimally equipped for its use in the garden monument: This involved protecting the path surface, taking into account visitors , keeping the noise level low and incorporating knowledge and experience from the gardening sector. “The gardeners' extensive expertise in the optimal care of the valuable historical potted plants was worth its weight in gold and played a key role in developing the robot,” says Julius Schlicht, Research Associate at TU Dresden, describing the collaboration. The robot was ultimately designed as an assistant robot. It works together with the gardeners and supports them in the difficult physical work. The robot is monitored and controlled by a specialist staff. The gardening specialists operate the robot using a small mobile control terminal with a display and input buttons. Operation is intuitive and hardly requires any training. The robot only acts autonomously on command, for example when refueling  fresh water. The robot can also move to fixed GPS points, e.g. to distribute materials or tools. A track-operated robot platform with extra-wide profiles was installed for the prototype in order to protect the paths in the garden monument. This is particularly necessary due to the heavy weight of the robot when fully loaded. The robot can operate for up to six hours on a single battery and is quiet and easy thanks to its electric drive and compact design. A safety area is clearly defined by means of a laser scanner. If guests enter this area, the robot brakes and switches itself off.

The robot can do the following on its own: It refills itself at the filling stations in the park, it finds its own way to set way points in the park, it automatically follows the gardeners.

In these cases, specialist personnel are needed: For manual control, sensor evaluation of water quantity and soil moisture in the bucket, irrigation via hose and nozzle and interaction via display and control panel.

Background: Teamwork between humans and machines
Watering is one of the most important tasks for gardeners at SBG. The increasing drought has significantly increased the amount of work involved in watering and other areas of gardening. Due to the dry years since 2018, the deeper layers of soil lack a whole year's precipitation. Potted plants are particularly affected on hot days. In Pillnitz Palace Park and the Grand Garden of Dresden, the “Climate Change in Historic Gardens” project is looking for innovative solutions to the extra work involved. Automation is the keyword: technical support is intended to relieve physically strenuous, monotonous work and save time. The prototype will be tested and optimized over the coming months. But there is still a long way to go with certifications and assessment processes before it is ready and can provide routine support in daily gardening work. It is also being tested whether the robot can also assist with transportation, path maintenance or winter service in the future.

Naming competition Let's give our robots their names
As our gardeners' new companions, both watering robots will soon be out and about in Pillnitz Palace Park. Now they need names. We are looking for creative and funny suggestions until September 17, 2024. What names would you like to call our robots? If you have a suggestion, please send it by email to . The Pillnitz gardening team and the climate change project team will then decide what their high-tech colleagues should be called. As a thank you, the name givers receive a “Garden Friend for 1 Year” annual pass for Pillnitz Palace Park.

www.schloesserland-sachsen.de

Contact persons:
Anita Radicke
PR Manager SBG
Phone +49 (0) 3 51 5 63 91-13 15
E-mail

Eva Gruhl
BMWSB project ‘Climate change in historic gardens’
Project employee for communication
Phone +49 (0) 160 91 38 91 68
E-mail