Robotic mowing of living crop cover as an alternative to plastic mulch: An approach for red fruit macro-tunnels

Plastic mulch is widely employed in macro-tunnel horticulture to suppress weeds, conserve soil moisture, and improve crop yield. There is a growing need for viable alternatives that mitigate its environmental impacts. One promising strategy is the introduction of vegetal cover crops, which function as living mulch. Nevertheless, the use of vegetative cover demands effective and frequent management to prevent competition with the main crop, presenting a key challenge in its widespread adoption. This study proposes and evaluates an autonomous robotic system designed for the mechanical management of vegetative cover as a sustainable alternative to plastic mulch in red fruit cultivation under macro-tunnel conditions. The robot integrates autonomous navigation and perception technologies built upon a ROS1 middleware framework. A custom-engineered mowing implement with reciprocating blades enables efficient and clean cutting, allowing plant residues to remain on the soil surface to maintain mulch functionality. The system has been validated through a combination of an artificial macro-tunnel and real-world field tests in macro-tunnel environments. Operational performance assessments indicated mowing coverage rates of 88.58 % and 84.55 % in artificial and real macro-tunnel, respectively. The average navigation error below 0.24 ± 0.02 m. The mowing evaluation reported a greater number and longer residues for the autonomous mowing robot (64.75 ± 12.84 and 131.17 ± 79.54 mm, respectively) compared to traditional systems (86.50 ± 9.37 and 101.05 ± 63.20 mm, respectively), which may contribute to slower decomposition and improve soil protection. The proposed robotic solution addresses key limitations in the manual maintenance of living mulch systems and offers a scalable, environmentally conscious approach to soil management.