TECHNOLOGY AND CODE article
Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Field Robotics
This article is part of the Research TopicRobotic Applications for a Sustainable FutureView all 10 articles
FORMIGA: A Fleet Management Framework for Sustainable Human–Robot Collaboration in Field Robotics
Provisionally accepted
- 1Ingeniarius, Porto, Portugal
- 2Universidade de Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro Escola de Ciencias e Tecnologia, Vila Real, Portugal
- 3Ingeniarius Lda, Porto, Portugal
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Robotic fleet management systems are increasingly vital for sustainable operations in agriculture, forestry, and other field domains where labor shortages, efficiency, and environmental concerns intersect. We present FORMIGA, a fleet management framework that integrates human operators and autonomous robots into a collaborative ecosystem. FORMIGA combines standardised communication through the Robot Operating System with a user-centered interface for monitoring and intervention, while also leveraging large language models to generate executable task code from natural language prompts. The framework was deployed and validated within the FEROX project, a European initiative addressing sustainable berry harvesting in remote environments. In simulation-based trials, FORMIGA demonstrated adaptive task allocation, reduced operator workload, and faster task completion compared to semi-autonomous control, enabling dynamic labor division between humans and robots. By enhancing productivity, supporting worker safety, and promoting resource-efficient operations, FORMIGA contributes to the economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability, offering a transferable tool for advancing human–robot collaboration in field robotics.
Keywords: Fleet management system, Human-robot collaboration, task coding, human-centric interface design, field robotics
Received: 16 Sep 2025; Accepted: 10 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yalcinkaya, Couceiro, Soares and Valente. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Beril Yalcinkaya
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