Smart Droplets Final Event | Highlights – Smart Droplets

As Smart Droplets reaches its final phase, the consortium met in Athens for a full-day, hybrid Final Event hosted at the Agricultural University of Athens, a moment to both close the loop on project delivery and open the discussion on what comes next for agricultural robotics and AI in Europe.

The day began behind closed doors with the internal consortium meeting, where partners aligned on the project’s final technical and organisational progress—from project coordination and ecosystem-building activities to the technology pillars that have defined Smart Droplets, including digital twins, autonomous spraying systems, and field deployment, alongside dissemination and uptake efforts. It was a structured “final stocktake” of what has been achieved and what is ready to carry forward.

That internal alignment set the tone for the afternoon public dissemination session, which focused on a simple (but demanding) question: how do we move from strong pilots and promising technology to solutions that are adopted, trusted, and scalable in real farming conditions?

Key highlights from the public dissemination session

Panel 1 | Agricultural Robotics: From Innovation to Market

The first discussion quickly made a shared point: adoption will not be won by “better robotics” alone. It will be won by proving value in a way that farmers can trust, afford, and sustain over time. The conversation touched repeatedly on the gap between strong pilots and scalable solutions: technology may be ready, but the ecosystem around it (service, maintenance, training, distribution networks, and even the mindset shift required) often isn’t.

That’s where the panelists grounded the discussion. Nikos Petkos (CEO, AGROMA S.A.) and Grigoris Chatzikostas (Partner, reframe.food) joined Nikos Georgiadis (Agronomy Lead, CNH Industrial), George Tsiantis (CFO, EdenCore), and Christophe Aubé (CEO, AGreenCulture) in a frank dialogue about what “market readiness” really means.

Beyond technological performance, the discussion leaned into business models, cost structures, and the importance of aligning expectations: farming is long-term; technology development can be long-term; investors and markets often are not. That mismatch between timelines, risk appetite, and real-world operating conditions was highlighted as one of the core barriers to scaling robotics and AI in agriculture.

One of the most concrete threads was also one of the most practical: scale may come faster when innovation meets farmers where they already are. Instead of betting everything on full replacement of equipment, the conversation pointed to incremental pathways, such as retrofitting existing machinery, as a realistic bridge to adoption, especially in fragmented agricultural contexts and in regions where farmers rely on known tools and support networks.

Panel 2 | Robotics in Agriculture: Shaping the Future of Farming

Building on that foundation, the second discussion shifted the lens from commercialisation to the broader impact of robotics and AI in crop protection and farm operations. Here, the emphasis was not on futuristic narratives, but on current pressure points: labour shortages that are no longer “coming” but already shaping day-to-day decisions, and the need to reduce inputs while maintaining performance and compliance.

George Fragkopoulos (Stewardship & e-Communications Manager, HCPA Hellenic Crop Protection Association), Michiel Kallenberg (Postdoctoral Researcher, Wageningen Environmental Research), Carlos Rizzo (Head of Mobile Robotics, Eurecat), and Enric Pedrós (Manager, Clúster FEMAC) brought the discussion back to what makes innovation usable: trust, clarity, and co-design.

The point was simple but powerful: AI cannot be a black box, and robotics cannot be a “demo moment.” If it is to support decision-making, reduce spray drift, or enable more targeted application, it must be understandable, reliable, and built through repeated engagement with farmers and real field constraints.

Closing reflection

By the end of the afternoon, the message felt cohesive: the next chapter for agricultural robotics will be written in the space between performance and practicality.

Smart Droplets showcased what is possible, but the event also underlined what matters next: turning promising innovation into solutions that fit farm realities, scale through the market, and earn trust through results.