Development of a electronic SmartHarvest-System for damage-free sugarbeet harvest# In 2017, the current sugar market regime will cut-off, and the acreage of the German sugar beet crop will substantially increase, thereby enabling a longer processing campaign and cost reduction per unit of sugar. As a consequence, the amount of beets stored in field piles for up to 3 month will increase. Under such conditions, long-term storage assuring low sugar losses is paramount. Storage losses and invert sugar formation are known to increase if the beets were damaged at harvest. Our project aims to develop a sensor-based monitoring system for sugar beet harvesters, assuring low-damage operation and minimal harvest and storage losses. Measuring techniques will be developed, allowing to quantify the actual amount of stresses exerted to the beets during harvest procedure. The relations between stresses, damages and losses will be established as the basis for an automatic control system. Scientific groups, the sugar sector and beet harvester manufacturers closely cooperate within the project. Overall, the sugar beet SmartHarvest system offers the potential for low harvest losses, and thus contributes to an improved feedstock productivity and efficiency of the whole process chain for sugar. The measuring techniques that will be developed are completely new, which requires a step-by-step development, accompanied by repeated tests of sensors and data logging systems. In addition, the relations between mechanical stresses exerted to the beets, beet damages and sugar losses will be validated. The project is arranged in 4 work packages (WP): WP 1: Development of measurement techniques to quantify the stresses exerted to the beets during the harvest process (Responsible: University of Kassel) WP 2: Validation of the relation between stresses, beet damage during the harvest process and qualitative and quantitative losses during field storage (Responsible: IfZ Göttingen) WP 3: Design and development of a monitoring system consisting of a sensing system to detect beet damage