On-field robots

Robots can be used for a range of agricultural activities in the field. This includes crop and animal sensing, input application, weeding, drilling, and harvesting. Automated systems for on-field agricultural activities have the potential to improve agricultural yield and productivity, while reducing fertiliser and pesticide use, as well as water loss and soil compaction, however the level of benefit will be context specific. Some of these technologies are already widely used, while others are still in development or theoretical. Precision farming, which uses varying levels of automation, already allows more accurately sowing of crops, more efficient harvesting, and use less water, pesticide, and fertiliser to achieve the same or even greater agricultural yield. Improvements in precision farming technology through increased automation could further increase productivity. However, full automation of agriculture activities is currently hampered by the dynamic and unstructured environment of field farming and will require further research to overcome.