What Technologies are Being Used in Farm Automation

A growing number of organizations are working on robotics innovation, and even though these technologies are still relatively new, traditional agriculture corporations are increasingly incorporating farm automation into their operations.

Fremont, CA: With the world's population continuing to rise at an alarming rate. The demand for farmers to produce nutritious products is higher than it has ever been, putting the health of the planet in trouble. From robotics and drones to computer vision software, technological advancements have transformed modern agriculture. Farmers now have access to equipment that will help them fulfill the world's expanding population demands.

Technologies being used in farm automation:

Harvest automation

Automating fruit and vegetable harvesting has always been challenging. Harvest robots must handle vegetables with care to avoid cuts and bruises, and damage. Agrobot has developed the world's first gentle strawberry harvesting robot, regardless of where or how strawberries are grown. Up to 24 robotic manipulators work together to choose fruit that meets the farmer's quality criteria from a versatile, mobile platform. Abundant Robotics, for example, is the first commercial robotic apple harvesting firm in the world.

Seeding and weeding

Seeding and weeding robotics are programmed to target a certain agricultural patch. This can quickly reduce labor and tedious duties on the farm when seeding. With computer vision, weeding robotics can be highly accurate and minimize pesticide usage by 90 percent. Lue River Technology uses computer vision and robotics to spray herbicides precisely where and when they're needed. Herbicide-resistant weeds now have a new weapon to attack and avoid.

Drones

Drones can be used to monitor conditions and spray fertilizer, pesticides, and other treatments remotely. They can also employ imaging and infrared analysis to quickly and inexpensively detect problem areas, allowing farmers to address issues sooner rather than later. American Robotics is developing a fully autonomous Robot-as-a-Service that includes an autonomous drone, base station, and analytics platform that will provide growers with data at unprecedented resolutions, frequencies, and speeds.