Robotic Applications in the Agricultural Industry

There are genuine issues in modern agriculture. Traditional farming methods struggle to meet market demands for efficiency. Farmers in developed countries are facing a labor shortage. The rise of automated farming is an attempt to address these issues through the use of robotics and advanced sensing.

Robotics and automation are transforming the food industry. We have talked about this trend in our previous articles. This article will concentrate on specific agricultural applications. After all, farming is the beginning of the food journey!

From cobot-assisted milking to cow-herding drones, robots are transforming agriculture beyond recognition.

Applications for Agricultural Robots

Farmers can focus more on improving overall production yields by automating slow, repetitive, and boring tasks with agricultural robots. Some of the most common agricultural robots are used for:

Picking and harvesting
Weed management
Mowing, pruning, seeding, spraying and thinning on their own
Phenotyping
Packing and sorting
Platforms for utility services

Harvesting and picking are two of the most popular robotic applications in agriculture because of the accuracy and speed that robots can achieve to increase yield size and reduce waste from crops left in the field.

Crop Seeding

Autonomous precision seeding combines robotics and geo-mapping. The soil properties (quality, density, and so on) at each point in the field are depicted on a map. The tractor, which is equipped with a robotic seeding attachment, then places the seeds at precise locations and depths to ensure the best possible growth.

Read more: Best Robotic Lawn Mowers of 2022

Crop Monitoring

Monitoring vast crop fields is a difficult task. New sensor and geo-mapping technologies are allowing farmers to collect far more data about their crops than in the past. Ground robots and drones can collect this data autonomously.

Fertilizing and Irrigation

By targeting specific plants, robot-assisted precision irrigation can reduce water waste. Ground robots autonomously navigate between crop rows, dispensing water directly at the base of each plant.

Robots also have the advantage of being able to enter areas that other machines cannot. Corn growers, for example, face the issue that the plants grow too quickly to be reliably fertilized.

Spraying

The concept of micro-spraying has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of herbicide used in crop production. Micro-spraying robots use computer vision technology to detect weeds and then spray a targeted drop of herbicide onto them.

Thinning

Thinning is the process of reducing plant density so that each plant has a better chance of growing. Pruning is the practice of cutting back parts of plants to promote growth.

Picking and Harvesting

It is simple to harvest crops such as corn, barley, and wheat. It is possible to do so with a combine harvester, which can be automated like a tractor. Soft fruits, for example, are more difficult to harvest because they require manual dexterity.

Food demand is outstripping available farmland, and farmers must fill the void. In this endeavor, agricultural robots are assisting them.