Washington, DC, United States – a more automated future of agriculture is developing rapidly, signaling rapid development of technology and promising solutions to some of the most disastrous problems with which agriculture is confronted today. The state of agricultural robotics and other forms of AG automation were discussed during the 100th annual forum of the American department of agricultural prospects, whose theme of 2024 was “the culture of the future” .
During the February 15 session, “Robotics and IA for Sustainable and Equitable Agricultural Systems”, industry experts covered the theme of agricultural robotics from several angles and discussed the implications for the future profitability of the industry, Health / safety and environmental sustainability.
Work shortages in the industry and its robot remedies were a repeated discussion subject during the presentation. Production agriculture is characterized by the “three D”, dull, dirty and dangerous, said John Shutske, professor and specialist in agricultural health and health at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
These qualities discourage young people from entering the industrial workforce, said Shopske. He also said that agricultural work is still considered the most dangerous occupation, its mortality rate per 100,000 workers being 7 times higher than a composite of all other industries, he said.
“One of the ideas of increasing automation, autonomy towards autonomy is to be able to physically withdraw this human being from a dangerous place,” he said. “Technology has the ability to allow this.”
The shortage of labor in agricultural work has also brought the industry to technology which deals with more “tedious” and “dull” tasks, such as screening to detect conditions in the agricultural environment. Automation is also used to perform long tasks such as crop harvest, animal care and the elimination of weeds, said Madhu Khanna, PhD, professor; Director of ISEE; Aces distinguished professor in environmental economy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
“(A) The growing phenomenon in agriculture is the growing resistance to chemicals for herbicides and pesticides and limited availability on the horizon for new chemical routes,” he said. “So we are really looking for alternatives to keep a step ahead of this growing resistance, and this is another place where robots can play a role.”
Research on weed management robots is underway, because the elimination of weeds from soy and corn crops in the Midwest has become increasingly difficult. Conventional herbicides are no longer effective in them, and this failure costs farmers in billions of dollars each year, Khanna said.
“Weed management robots can be deployed several times during a growth season to mechanically eliminate weeds,” he said. “Robots are much more effective than herbicides, it reduces the need for work, its small size does not cause soil compaction and can help delay future resistance.
“As we have more economies of scale, the cost of these robots will drop. There is potential here to increase productivity and profitability and at the same time reduce runoff and damage. »»
Another developed robot is a food crop planting robot. The planting of coverage crops is a task that is generally cold and unpleasant for farmers, long and costly. This robot passes under an annuity culture, like corn during the summer, even before this culture is harvested, and does work in advance.
“What is exciting in this technology is that he learns as you go and therefore continues to improve to achieve a goal that has been given to him,” said Khanna.