With technology developing rapidly, the agricultural sector is quickly drawing attention to high-tech industries, new professionals & new investors.
The UN estimates the world population will rise from 7.3 billion today to 9.7 billion in 2050. As a result, the world will need more food & will be facing serious pressure to keep up with the rise in demand.
New advanced technologies, ranging from robotics to autonomous tractors, harvest automation have completely transformed modern agriculture.
Let’s dive into some details.
What is farm automation?
Mostly associated with “smart farming”, this technology makes farms more productive by automating the crops or livestock invention cycle.
A number of corporations are already working on automation technologies like drone development, robotic harvesters, seeding robots & automatic watering.
One of the most important things to keep in mind is the significance of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is the hub of innovation of the number of sensors, machines & gadgets to connect to a single network!
So many startups have been working on focusing on the improvement of software that allows us to monitor various jobs in agricultural sectors. This, in turn, has welcomed some real-time big investors who with their steady investment made about $1.5 billion in 2017.
What are the major technologies used in farm automation?
The primary goal of farm automation, as well as robotics in agriculture, is to cover mundane, physically challenging tasks so that the farmers can focus more on their overall business development.
Harvest Automation
Harvesting automation in vegetables & fruits is slightly difficult as harvesting robots must be gentle.
Also, they must have a proper understanding of some intricate details like how much ripe is the fruit? Is it ready to be plugged yet?
Agrobot is a company that has been successfully harvesting strawberries.
From a flexible mobile platform, up to 24 robotics manipulators work together to pick the fruit which meets the farmer’s quality standard.
Seeding & Weeding
This is so far the most popular area where robots have been used extensively.
Traditionally seeding is done by scattering the seeds simply using a “broadcast spreader” attached to a tractor or at times by hand as well. It often leads to wastage of seeds.
Seeding can be tedious & with robots it the job can be much faster with more efficiency. Weeding with robots can also reducing pesticide usage by 90% with computer vision.
Fertilizing & Irrigation
Irrigation & fertilization can use a lot of water & can have a lot of wastage!
Robot-Assisted Precision Irrigation can reduce wasted water by targeting specific plants. Ground robots autonomously navigate between rows of crops and pour water directly at the base of each plant.
For example, corn growers often face a problem that the plants grow too quickly to reliably fertilize them. Robots can easily solve the issue as it can easily drive in between the rows of corns & target the fertilizer directly to their base!
Thinning & Pruning
Thinning involves reducing the density of plants so that each has a better chance of growing.
Robots uses computer vision to detect lettuce plants as it drives over them and decides at that moment which plants to keep and which to remove.
In the case of pruning which is cutting back parts of plants to improve their growth, one of the major landmarks achieved by automated machines is in the wine industry.
Drones
Drones are a quick & cost-effective solution to identify problem areas with imagery and infrared analysis to help farmers diagnose issues early on.
They can also be used to monitor conditions remotely and even apply fertilizers, pesticides, and other treatments from above.
What are the major benefits of farm automation?
Consumer Benefit
The world is moving towards organic & sustainable products. An increase in productivity from automation increases the yield and rate of production, therefore reducing costs for consumers.
Labor Efficiency
31% of farmers are moving to less labor-intensive crops. Routine tasks can be easily done with robotics technology, reducing labor cost & manpower as well.
Reducing Environmental Damage
Farm automation can make agriculture more profitable while reducing ecological damage as well.
Site-specific application software can reduce the amount of pesticides and fertilizer used while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Some of the most popular agriculture automation companies are:
Abundant Robotics, Agrobot, American Robotics, Blue River Technologies, Bear Flag Robotics
The future
Agriculture automation offers a path towards sustainable and more efficient agriculture through advancements of technologies, production systems, and software.
With each year, the automation industry gets more sophisticated & within a few years, it has the potential to turn the agriculture sector into a fully automated.
What is your take on agricultural automation? Comment here!
Also, for more such interesting articles on robotics & artificial intelligence check out our blogs here!
