Top Robots for Farmers for 2014
In 2014 robots have begun to supplement our already automated agriculture industry with a target of feeding the 9 billion people predicted to populate the Earth by 2050. Not only will agricultural output need to double, to feed all those people, but productivity must increase by 25 percent, according to The Robot Report author Frank Tobe.
“In 2014, robots have begun in earnest to supplement the already automated agriculture industry,” Tobe told EE Times. “By 2020 many farming tasks will be performed with autonomous robotic devices.”
According to Tobe, robots are enabling farmers to jump over the slow incremental progress of farming automation, going directly to fully automating most aspects of agricultural chores — from grafting to planting to harvesting to sorting to packaging and boxing. In addition, drones are being used to pinpoint where crops need fertilizer or spraying, and in some cases actually doing the job themselves.