Automation in agricultural equipment and technology
In a world where all the industries including agriculture is facing huge number of challenges, Automation is now considered importantly than ever before.Automation in agricultural equipment and development of it’s technology has already transformed the prevailed agriculture system to a one smart and a modern version.
When it comes to farm automation, smart farming has improved as an efficient technology which integrates advanced technologies to the existing practices. From robots to drones, it has turned a new page of modern agriculture while increasing the production and the quality of the products.
The basic intention of the farm automation was to cover the easier and mundane tasks while addressing the major issues of agriculture in the globe.Currently autonomous tractors, robotic harvesters,automatic watering and seeding robots and drones,indoor robotic green houses are some developing robotic innovations inside the smart farming. These technologies can mainly be categorized into three sectors as autonomous robots, drones or UAVs and Internet of things(IoT). However many agricultural companies has already started the using of above automation processes for the main practices in agriculture.
Harvesting,one of the most important processes in agriculture was always a challenging process for automation. Avoiding the damage and bruising to the harvest , picking only the harvest which meets the farmer’s quality standards by replacing the human labor were major problems which failed the efficiency of the harvest automation process at the beginning. But after several failures companies have successfully introduced robots (AgBots) for harvesting with more technologies with sensors and IoT connectivity.
The first robot which was introduced for a gentle harvest of strawberries was developed in a mobile platform where 24 robotic manipulators were working within. Also the world’s first robot for the apple harvesting was consisted with a vacuum instead of any handle to pull the fragile fruits from the plants. Some robotic harvesting technologies has implemented basing on the human body motions where it grips like human fingers and uses embedding and twisting motions.
Automated drones is another developed technology which were equipped with the cameras to monitor the conditions in the field using images and infrared analysis. But with the advances in imaging technology images are available using ultraviolet and even from hyperspectral imaging with a higher resolution. While applying the treatments like fertilizers, pesticides flowing above, these monitoring systems helped the farmers to collect more details and identify the prevailing issues early. Thus the relevant remedies could be taken at the relevant time while optimizing the crop management. Currently companies are developing fully autonomous robots with autonomous drone, base station and also with a analytic platform focusing on agriculture. This will lead to provide the relevant resolutions, frequencies, and speeds for the growers and researchers.
Seeding and weeding has also been automated with the use of robotics. Weeding robots have been developed with a significant accurate level deciding on where and what herbicides or pesticides is needed. As the technologies, developers have used machine learning for the identification of weeds before removal. With the automation on weeding on the same base machine, cameras and sensors are implemented to apply the insecticides and pesticides.
When developing crop spraying drones, GPS technology with laser measurement and ultrasonic positioning has been used in order to adjust the location easily for spraying. As a result automated spraying has become more efficient by adjusting the other environmental factors. Using of microwave radar has enable the drones to maintain the accurate distance from the crops.
Beside of these, another popular automation system is indoor robotic greenhouse farming system. Iron Ox is such an automated green house system where over 50 varieties of vegetables are grown hydroponically. Robots have been used to manage all the hydroponic modules movements and here consumption of less energy is an significant feature.
Automation has also being used in dairy farming where artificial intelligence and automation is used to feed and milk the cows themselves. This has helped the farmers significantly with their supplying side increasing the milk production.
“I’m a one-man operation. I need this technology because I really can’t afford to hire anyone. Besides, finding a skilled operator who is willing to work 24 hours a day for three or four days a year is ludicrous,” said Kyler Laird, Farmer,Manager,Lairdscape IIC. “I can’t hire that, but I can make that very inexpensively.”
That explains how the farmers have accepted automation processes in order to have a precision agriculture.With the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of settling down the farming system problems, they have been heightened and gotten worse than ever before. As a response, the whole world has accelerate it’s adoptions for the automation processes.
“Automation in the food industry has already existed but now needs to happen in orders of greater magnitude,” said Josh Lessing, CEO and co-founder of Root A.I. “For those who haven’t adopted automation, pulling out of this crisis, are going to be faced with a lot of questions about how to adopt modern-age farming technology.”
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