What is Robotics and Automation in Agriculture:
Agriculture is humankind’s oldest and still
its most important economic activity, providing the
food, feed, fiber, and fuel necessary for our survival. With the global population expected to reach 9
billion by 2050, agricultural production must double if it is to
meet the increasing demands for food and bioenergy. Given limited land, water
and labor resources, it is estimated that the efficiency of agricultural
productivity must increase by 25% to meet that goal, while limiting the growing
pressure that agriculture puts on the environment.
Robotics
and automation can play a significant role in society meeting 2050 agricultural
production needs. For six decades robots have played a fundamental role
in increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost of industrial
production and products. In the past
twenty years, a similar trend has started to take place in agriculture, with
GPS- and vision-based self-guided tractors and harvesters already being
available commercially. More recently, farmers have started to experiment with autonomous
systems that automate or augment
operations such as pruning, thinning, and harvesting, as well as mowing,
spraying, and weed removal. In the fruit tree industry, for example, workers
riding robotic platforms have shown to be twice as efficient as workers using
ladders. Advances in sensors and control systems allow for optimal resource and
integrated pest and disease
management.
This is just the beginning of what will be a revolution in the way that food is
grown, tended, and harvested.
Engineers and researchers
works to increase the level of autonomous machinery in agriculture and the best solution is to design and build robots
capable to work continuously without human guidance. Robots deployed for
agricultural purposes can deliver high accuracy and low costs while the farmers
can have in real-time a situation of tasks already completed.Robots could be designed to include many
agricultural techniques using a limited set of tools and replacing the human
laborers.
A fully autonomous
agricultural robot should have the ability to understand the environment, work
for an unlimited time without any operator intervention,
capable for environment adaptation when changes occur, and to ensure the security for humans.
The number of commercial agricultural robots is still limited for a moment, but there
is the assumption that in the near future their
number will increase significantly.
Even is a tractor
modified to work autonomous or a robotic platform powered by sunlight, in this
article we make an overview of autonomous agricultural robots capable to
recognize plants, works with high accuracy on large areas, and could be used
for many agricultural operations.
Autonomous Robot Tractor: