The Council for Agricultural Science & Technology (CAST) released a new paper titled "Ground & Aerial Robots for Agricultural Production: Opportunities & Challenges.”

The paper discusses ground and aerial robots; robotic manipulators; robots used for row crops, orchards and specialty crops; automated systems in animal agriculture, and enabling factors for the deployment and adoption of robots.

Today, highly automated systems are employed in crop and animal industries to enhance agricultural input efficiency and, thus, increase agricultural output with a reduced adverse impact on the environment.

As suggested by the authors of the paper, one kind of automated system for crop production is using unmanned ground vehicles instead of large-manned machinery to reduce soil compaction. Robots or automated systems used in animal industries include automatic milking systems, feeding systems, cleaning systems that can spray disinfectants and robots that can pick up eggs. Concepts also exist for the automation of estimating pig weights.

Ground and aerial robots combined with artificial intelligence techniques are able to tackle the rising food, fiber and fuel demands of the rapidly growing population that is slated to be around 10 billion by the year 2050. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) can detect plant emergence and identify weeds without needing to physically enter the field. UAS-based systems can also be used to measure animal temperature to identify possible illness and deter bird pests in specialty crops. The paper presents opportunities provided by ground and aerial robots for improved crop and animal production and the challenges associated with their progress and adoption.

The paper is available to download on CAST’s website.

Task force authors include:

•            Dr. Santosh Pitla, Chair, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
•            Dr. Sreekala Bajwa, Montana State University
•            Santosh Bhusal, Ph.D. candidate, Washington State University
•            Dr. Tom Brumm, Iowa State University
•            Dr. Tami Brown-Brandl, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
•            Dr. Dennis R. Buckmaster, Purdue University
•            Dr. Isabella Condotta, University of Illinois
•            Dr. John Fulton, Ohio State University
•            Todd Janzen, Janzen Agricultural Law
•            Dr. Manoj Karkee, Washington State University
•            Dr. Mario Lopez, DeLaval
•            Dr. Robert Moorhead, Mississippi State University
•            Dr. Michael Sama, University of Kentucky
•            Dr. Leon Schumacher, University of Missouri
•            Dr. Scott Shearer, Ohio State University
•            Dr. Alex Thomasson, Mississippi State University