Agricultural Robots: Future Trends for Autonomous Farming

Abstract

From the era of stone-age, humans have managed to hunt and gather the food for their survival. Since historic times, humans have been using their brains to fulfill the necessity of food. From that time to 21st century human beings have been using their intelligence for their survival. Over the period of time methodologies of cultivating food have improved to such extent that nowadays robots are being used for farming purposes. Robots have simplified the job of farmers to a great extent. They have helped farmers in undertaking smart farming. Due to globalization the import and export of food have reached to a pinnacle where farmers are getting a good price returns on their crops. Due to this factor there has been increase in competition in agriculture sector. Farmers are shifting their gears towards robotic farming from the traditional farming. These things have resulted in advances in computer technology, advances in forecasting, automatic watering system etc. There has been rapid decrease in cost of new technology due to which robotic farming is becoming cheaper and effective day by day. Agro-bots (Agriculture robots) can be equipped with latest technologies such as computer-based sensors and actuators such as global positioning systems, machine vision and laser-based sensors. These technologies can be progressively incorporated into mobile robots with the aim of configuring autonomous farming. This paper will discuss about the introduction of robotics into agriculture field, its history, current trends, future trends and their impacts on society.