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:

The industry is growing and this is not a surprise while a lawnmower is designed to mow lawns. This is not a simple task, the robot has to avoid collisions and obstacles, and at the same time has to take care to cut the grass at the desired height. A fully autonomous robot supposes to not require the human intervention for any actions like a detailed path to follow. The robot has to work alone according to owner specifications.

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