The benefits of automating traditional farming processes are monumental. Advantages of farm automationįarm automation technology addresses major issues like a rising global population, farm labor shortages, and changing consumer preferences. American Robotics is developing a fully autonomous “Robot-as-a-service” with an autonomous drone, base station, and analytics platform that provides insights to growers at resolutions, frequencies, and speeds never before possible. They can also quickly and cost-effectively identify problem areas with imagery and infrared analysis to help farmers diagnose issues early on. Dronesĭrones can be used to monitor conditions remotely and even apply fertilizers, pesticides, and other treatments from above. ecoRobotix is another company that produces a weeding robot - this is the first ever completely autonomous machine for a more ecological and economical weeding of row crows, meadows, and intercropping cultures. This gives farmers a new way to control and prevent herbicide-resistant weeds. Blue River Technology employs computer vision and robotics technologies to precisely spray herbicides only where needed and with exactly what’s needed. Weeding robotics can be incredibly accurate and reduce pesticide usage by 90% with computer vision. In seeding, this can easily reduce labor and mundane tasks on the farm. Robotics developed for seeding and weeding can target specific crop areas. Tractor automation kits are even being developed by Bear Flag Robotics that makes automation more accessible for farmers by affordably retrofitting existing tractors with cutting edge driverless technology and implement control. Rabbit Tractor’s autonomous tractor delivers value to row crop farmers not just through a reduction in labor costs, but through increased efficiency across operations and increased yield.
VOSKUL HISTORY OF AUTOMATION FULL
Autonomous TractorsĪutonomous tractors can be controlled remotely or even pre-programmed to give full autonomy to a producer. Their machines handle fragile fruits by using a vacuum instead of any claw or hand-like graspers to pull apples from the branch. From a flexible mobile platform, up to 24 robotics manipulators work together to pick the fruit which meets the farmer’s quality standard.Īnother company, Abundant Robotics, is the world’s first commercial robotic apple harvest. Agrobot has successfully developed the first robot for gently harvesting strawberries, no matter where and how they are grown. Harvest robots must be gentle with the produce to avoid bruising and damage. Harvesting fruits and vegetables have always proven to be a difficult problem to automate. Here are some major technologies that are most commonly being utilized by farms. The primary goal of farm automation technology is to cover easier, mundane tasks. What technologies are being used in farm automation? Although these technologies are fairly new, the industry has seen an increasing number of traditional agriculture companies adopt farm automation into their processes. An increasing number of companies are working on robotics innovation to develop drones, autonomous tractors, robotic harvesters, automatic watering, and seeding robots. What is farm automation?įarm automation, often associated with “smart farming”, is technology that makes farms more efficient and automates the crop or livestock production cycle. Farmers now have access to tools that will help them meet the demands of our world’s ever-increasing population.
VOSKUL HISTORY OF AUTOMATION SOFTWARE
New advancements in technologies ranging from robotics and drones to computer vision software have completely transformed modern agriculture. Now more than ever, the pressure on farmers to produce nutritious products is putting our planet’s health under even more stress. And with a global population projection of 9.7 billion people by 2050, agricultural production will need to increase by at least 70% from current levels to serve nutritional trends. With a global population projection of 9.7 billion people by 2050, agricultural production will need to increase by at least 70% from current levels to serve nutritional trends.Īgriculture has moved us forward us so far in 12,000 years, but we are now at a turning point. The advent of agriculture kickstarted a wider range of advancements from the use of fire and prepared food to self-driving machinery. Humans ability to engineer the environment to generate enough food to sustain massive population growth was the first profound change in the relationship between fully-modern humans and the environment. The development of agriculture was a watershed moment in humanity.