Artificial Intelligence is a driving force in the rising popularity and usage of robotics in multiple industries. For the agriculture industry, it can be said that robots will revolutionize the industry.
With the use of robotics, the agricultural industry can operate more efficiently and effectively. Robots have a higher workload capacity and can complement farmers. Implementing robotics reduces manual labour and increases productivity, efficiency and the quality of products. For example, with the help of robotic products harvesting cycle times can be minimized and fertilization can be done more efficienctly (King, 2017). Environmental impact can also be reduced, as less water and pesticides will have to be used with the help of robotics (Tibbetts, 2019).
There are four robotics that will revolutionize the agricultural industry. As farming requires a lot of heavy physical labour with routine tasks, robots can mitigate the tasks of a farmer. Exoskeletons are robots that support farmers in their daily tasks, easing their labour intensive activities. Next to that, weed pullers can be used to increase productivity and provide a high quality of weed as the health and maturity of the weed are taken into account. Weed pullers are robots that will be able to remove weeds only once they’re mature as it can scan the center of the crops and recognize its maturity. Fruit picking robots are able to pick fruits exactly when they’re ripe without damaging the fruit. Fruit picking is a difficult task as fruits can easily be bruised. In the United Kingdom a strawberry harvesting robot has been developed, reducing the labour intensity and increasing the velocity of picking strawberries. Another robot that revolutionizes farming are drones. Drones help to monitor crops and create 3D maps from high spatial resolution. With drones farmers can work more effectively and precisely (Lallensack, 2019) (Power and Motion World, 2019).
However, the development of robotics is error-prone and requires high investments. Another threat is that robots could replace farmers completely and many jobs will be lost (van Hooijdonk, 2018). Therefore, the implementation of robotics in farming is expected to be gradual, but it will revolutionize farming. All of the above robotic systems will play a major role in the way the agricultural industry is going to change.
References:
Hooijdonk, van R. (20180). The future may be more about working alongside cobots than about machines taking all our jobs. [online]. Available at: https://www.richardvanhooijdonk.com/blog/en/the-future-may-be-more-about-working-alongside-cobots-than-about-machines-taking-all-our-jobs/
King, A. (2017). The future of agriculture. Nature, 544(7651), S21-S23. KPMG. (2018). Agribusiness Summer 2018 – Agricultural Disruption: Traditional agriculture is increasingly being disrupted by new technology. [online] Available at: https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/ie/pdf/2018/05/ie-agribusiness-report.pdf
Lallensack, R. (2019). Five roles robots will play in the future of farming. [online] Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/five-roles-robots-will-play-future-farming-180973242/#:~:text=From%20picking%20fruit%20to%20pulling,bringing%20precision%20farming%20to%20life&text=Farmers%20have%20always%20been%20diligent,milk%20an%20individual%20cow%20produces.&text=Farmers%20can%20use%20the%20same,are%20integrated%20into%20other%20industries.
Power and Motion World (2019). Robotics and agriculture, how robots will change farming. [online] Available at: https://powerandmotionworld.it/en/2019/12/02/robotics-changing-the-future-of-agriculture/
Tibbetts, J. (2019). Agricultural Disruption. BioScience, 69(4), pp.237-243.
Thank you Julia for this very interesting article! I do believe robotics in this industry could solve a lot of nowadays issues. Robots could also be able to recognize invasive species and humans could thus act and find solutions to combat them. Alone, thirty invasive species are responsible for the extinction or endangerment of 738 vertebrate species, equaling more than 58% of all bird, mammal and reptile extinctions. Thus this could solve an important issue that our ecosystem faces. One big problem that comes with this is the replacing farmers by robots; another source of revenue for farmers should be thought out if this innovation wants to be accepted all around the world.
Hi Julia, this was a very interesting read. I agree with you that robotics and other types of technological automation will revolutionize agriculture. I found it interesting that you decided to highlight robotics reducing the labour intensity of farming, as this is an often overlooked benefit of technology in agriculture. I think the main benefit of automation in agriculture lies in its ability to feed our evergrowing world population in a sustainable way. When you look at it this way, combined with the vision you presented in your article, isn’t it weird that agriculture is still not associated with technological advancements in many parts of the world and that investments relatively lag behind those in other industries?
I agree with you that some factors threaten the quick implementation of robotics, one of which is the sheer complexity of these robots in combination with the environment they will be operating in. However, I also share your view that once these obstacles have been overcome, robotics and technology will change agriculture in its core.
Hi Julia, I really enjoyed reading about your view on the use of robotics in the agricultural industry. I believe that Artificial Intelligence will definitely revolutionize the way farming is practised. The advantages that the use of robotics can offer will be significant. However, you wrote as well that a disadvantage could be the loss of jobs by the replacement of farmers with robotics. I agree that this could be a disadvantage, especially in the Netherlands that has a high focus on exporting agricultural products. But I would like to point out that currently looking at a worldwide perspective there is a rising shortage of farmers, threatening the supply of food. The rising urbanisation in a lot of countries has led to a population shift from the countryside to the cities. Leading to less and less people who are willing to work on farms. (Walch, 2020). Therefore in my view robotics should be seen more as an opportunity to meet the rising worldwide demand for food rather than a threat to employment.
Walch, K., (2020). How AI is transforming agriculture. [Online]. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/07/05/how-ai-is-transforming-agriculture/#e9a43664ad10
Hi Julia, thank you for your very insightful post. I could learn a lot from what you wrote and I look forward to see how this industry will developed. In your post you mentioned that the development of robots still requires high investments and that when robots will be largely implemented, many farming jobs could be lost. Following this logic, I can imagine then that in the future, there would be only a few companies controlling the entire farming industry since it would be too expensive for other companies to compete against them. Do you believe this could be a plausible scenario? And, what would you recommend to farmers in order to still keep their jobs?