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Artificial Intelligence And Robotics In The Field Of Agriculture

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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.10162.84167

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Artificial Intelligence And Robotics In The Field Of
Agriculture
Akshay Prashanth Shet
Department of Computing and
informatics
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth, United Kingdom
S5229222@bournemouth.ac.uk
Abstract—The agriculture sector faces many challenges such
as crop diseases, pest infestation, water shortage, weeds and
many more. These problems lead to substantial crop loss,
economic loss and also causes severe environmental hazards due
to the current agriculture practices. The AI and Robotics
technologies have the potential to solve these problems
efficiently. As the agriculture is a dynamic sector, the problems
in agriculture are not generalised by AI and robotics, and a
specific solution is provided to a particular complex problem. A
variety of systems have been developed to help these challenges
and provide a better approach worldwide. This literature review
contains significant contributions used to address the challenges
that agriculture faces, through AI and robotic techniques. We
have also addressed essential milestones in the development
process, and the challenges for broad adoption of these
technologies along with its social, economic, and environmental
impacts, and concludes by shedding some light on how to
overcome challenges of adoption.
Keywords—Artificial intelligence, Robotics, Precision
farming.
I. INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is one of the most essential and important
fields of the economy. According to Worldbank.org,
agricultural development is one of the most critical
components for eradicating global poverty, and development
in this sector would increase collective wealth and feed the
future population. Agriculture accounted for 4 % of the
world's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018, and can
account for about 18% of the nation's GDP for countries like
India [1].
The world population has grown to more than 7.7 billion.
[2] The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations predicts that the world population will reach over 9
billion by 2050. The food demand is increasing gradually, and
at the same time, the food supply chain is facing a crisis. [3]
United Nations organization states that around 68% of the
world population will live in urban areas by the year 2050,
which arises a necessity to reduce the load on the farmers.
Agriculture faces many threats right from sowing till to
harvesting. Significant factors such as climate change, global
warming, water scarcity, insect and disease infestation,
overuse of pesticides, weeds, under-irrigation, and drainage,
along with these labour shortage is another critical problem
[4]. One of the reasons for labour shortages is that the current
generation of farmer's age is rising, and when they go out of
farming activities, the new generation is less likely to replace
them, and this gives rise to considerable concern.
The agriculture industry and its participants are the critical
drivers for environmental change, accountable for shifts
Priya Shekar
Department of Computing and
informatics
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth, United Kingdom
S5229218@bournemouth.ac.uk
toward land usage, degradation of freshwater supplies [5],
contamination of marine and terrestrial environments by
excess use of nitrogen and phosphorus inputs [6]. This threat
is mainly due to farming activities such as forest clearing,
heavy use of synthetic fertilizers, and livestock emissions [7].
For much of our history, if we wanted to grow more crops, we
merely deforested to obtain more land for farming.
Agricultural activities have contributed to the destruction of
entire eco-systems across the world. The forests, such as
tropical forests continue to be cleared at unprecedented rates
[7]. Today, almost 500 billion hectares of land are used for
agriculture, accounting for almost 40% of the world's
available land. Agriculture sector, a massive consumer of
freshwater, accounting for 70% of all water use in the world
[8]. The European Agricultural Machinery Association
(CEMA)[9] predicts that agricultural lands in developed
countries have hit their peak.
The traditional farming methods are incapable of
producing the food required by the future population of the
world and it also risks people's health, and the planet.
Agriculture produces unacceptable amounts of pollution and
waste [1]. These issues have driven the agriculture sector into
finding more innovative ideas and techniques for improving
crop yield and protecting the ecology. Over the past century,
agriculture has moved from labour-intensive to mechanization
and power-intensive production systems. Although,
agriculture has begun to digitize over the last 15 years.
However, the development in the sector when compared to the
available modern technology is very minimal [4]. AI and
robotics are a robust combination for automating any tasks. In
recent years, AI has become an increasingly common
presence in robotic options, introducing learning and
adaptability capabilities in formerly rigid applications[10].
Artificial intelligence and robotics in agriculture are
bringing about a revolution. These technology are enhancing
crop production and improving real-time management,
harvesting, processing, and marketing [11]. Various high-tech
computer-based systems are being designed for identifying
the plant's diseases, weed detection and removal, yield
prediction and crop growth monitoring, analysing quality of
produced yield. Agriculture is a diverse sector, which means
a common approach can not suggest for every circumstances.
The AI and robotics techniques help one to collect the details
of each scenario and provide an optimal solution to a given
problem. AI and robotics-based technologies have the
potential to solve these problems efficiently. These
technologies can improve crop yield efficiency, irrigation by
using less water, crop monitoring, quality of the crop. AI and
robotics-based technologies can enable the farmer to produce
more and better yield with reduced production cost and
increase their profit.
1
 This paper reviews the current research and innovations of
AI and robotics in the field of agriculture, along with critical
milestones in the process of development, here we will also
discuss the challenges for broad adoption of these
technologies along with its social, economic, and
environmental impacts, and concludes by shedding some light
on how to overcome challenges of adoption.
II. ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
The industrialisation of agriculture started with the
invention of tractors, it revolutionised the industry of that
time. The tractors powered by internal combustion engines
were compact, more powerful and easy to use compared to its
steam engine powered predecessor [12]. This evolution was
made possible by the invention of the internal combustion
engine. As an enabling technology, the internal combustion
engine marked a fundamental shift in the way work was
performed and dramatically improved agricultural production.
With new dynamic problems, agriculture is once again on the
path of a transition to a new era. This transition would shift
the industry from the previous industrial practises to data-
driven management and automation. The latest paradigm will
be made possible by developing applications and solutions
that are driven by the integration of many-core technologies,
such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and
robotics [12].
A. Artificial intelligence
The Encyclopaedia Britannica's definition of Artificial
Intelligence [13] states, "the ability of a digital computer or
computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly
associated with intelligent beings".
AI was first introduced by John McCarthy in 1956 [14],
since then it has been researched for decades. The key
developments over the past sixty years have been the
development of search algorithms, machine learning
algorithms, and the introduction of statistical analysis. Due to
the availability of data and low-cost computing resources,
machine learning is one of the most active and popular fields
of artificial intelligence. In machine learning, the use of
algorithms and statistical models includes constructing a
model and training it against a set of training data to make
predictions. One form of model that has generated
considerable attention is the artificial neural network (ANN).
This style of the model was inspired by the interactions
between neurons in the brain, where a set of nodes is
interconnected and can transmit information to one another
[15]. ANNs have been used for a wide variety of applications,
Deep learning is a field in artificial intelligence focused on an
artificial neural network [16], which mimics the functioning
of human brains for data processing, and its mainly used for
object identification, speech recognition, language translation,
and decision making. the application of deep learning includes
self driving cars, computer vision and many more.
B. Robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinary field of electronic,
mechanical, and computer science engineering [17]. Robotics
involves the conception, design, manufacturing, and
operations of robots. Robots are machines that are developed
to perform complex actions. The goal of robotics is to design
an intelligent machine that can help humans in day-to-day life
activities. These types of machines were designed and
developed over the centuries. However, the first modern
robots were introduced in the late 1950s with the introduction
of industrial robots. These were simple machines that
performed specific manufacturing activities at a fixed
position. Since then, robotics has expanded through a wide
range of fields, including defence, medicine, and space
exploration, and many more [17]. Today, robotics is an
increasingly growing field, with technological developments
continuing.
C. Internet of things
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term used to describe the
interconnection of physical devices, objects, and systems with
the Internet. Kevin Ashton first coined the term Internet of
things in 1999. The IoT is a collection of technologies that
enable devices to connect to each other over the Internet and
it is a network of devices, from household appliances to
industrial equipment, that are connected to the internet. This
allows them to send and receive data and to be controlled
remotely [18].
III. HISTORY AND CRITICAL MILESTONES
Over the last few decades, there has been consistent
development in the field of AI and Robotics due to its
robustness in various fields, including the agriculture sector
[19]. Computers and technologies have begun to infiltrate this
sector from 1983 onwards [19]. From then, many proposals
and conceptual ideas for change in agriculture have taken
place.
The first development of robotics in agriculture can be
dated as early as the 1920s, with experiments into the
introduction of automated vehicle guidance into agriculture
sector. This study contributed to the development of
autonomous agricultural vehicles between the 1950s and the
1960s. However, the concept was not ideal, with vehicles still
in need of a cable system to direct their route. Robots in
agriculture have started to grow as developments in other
industries have also started to develop. In the 1980s the
machine vision guidance became possible with the
advancement in computers [20].
The term "Artificial Intelligence" was coined in 1956 as
"Science and Engineering of Intelligent Machines" [11] The
Expert systems & software were the first ai based solutions
introduced to the sector of agriculture. In 1986, Lemmon
made a promising effort to create an expert system called
Comax (COtton Management eXpert). Lemmon, a pioneer in
the field of AI in the agriculture sector, has developed a
software named Gossym, which is microcomputer-friendly
and supports the use of Comax. For the first time ever, the
expert system (Comax) was successfully combined with the
computer model (Gossym) and simulated for the growth of
cotton crops [21].
An expert system called “PRITHVI” based on fuzzy logic
has been built in Rajasthan, India [19]. The system was
designed especially for the soya beans crop. Agricultural
authorities, published literature and soybeans expert’s
experiences and knowledge are gathered while designing this
system. Fuzzy logic was deemed to be a specialist in analysing
the entire system and in providing farmers with advice.
Following the expert systems, many other applications
such as crop monitoring system, yield prediction, chatbots,
pest, disease detection and identification systems were
developed in agriculture sector.
2
IV. WHY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ROBOTICS WORTH details regarding the type of harm that it could cause the plant,
CONSIDERING IN AGRICULTURE? and also the available precautions and solution to overcome
the harm [27]. This smartphone-based AI applications could
In agriculture and food production, the GeSI study
warn the farmers and speed up the diagnosis while preventing
[22] describes possible empowering results of AI enabled
potential outbreaks of pests and diseases.
technology that could see environmental benefits such as a
30% rise in crop yields, a reduction of more than 300 billion
liters of water usage and a reduction in oil consumption by 25
million barrels per year by 2030According to another research
conducted by PwC, AI could add $232 billions to UK’s GDP
by 2030 [23]. Every industry must change overtime. The
agriculture sector had to adapt the breakthroughs an
innovation that had taken place in the field of automation. AI
and Robotics drives production in our existing farming
practices to maximize production and minimize waste without
adversely impacting the environment [12].
Intelligent farming is focused on automated decision
making [24] to ensure resource productivity, enhance
produced quality, crop protection, ecological sustainability,
reduce cultivation expenses, raise market share, increase
profitability, and maintain the workforce [8]. Robotics and AI Fig. 1. Smartphone app for Plant disease and pest identification and
systems are in a position to assist farmworkers in carrying out detection
crop-growing activities, to predict agricultural outputs over a
few months in advance for the next few preparation actions B. Target spraying of pesticides
combined with digital agriculture technologies [12] .In Pesticides may pollute land, water-bodies, vegetation and
agriculture, robotics and precision farming technology other crops if they are used excessively. Other than harming
typically contribute to the use of fewer agrochemicals and pests or weeds, pesticides can be toxic to different animals,
fertilizers as a result of targeted systems delivering the right including birds, fish, beneficial insects such as bees and non-
amount in the right place and in the right time[4]. target organisms or plants [28].
The adoption of robotic technology into agriculture could Advancement in Robotic and AI has opened the doors to
lead to a new improvement in labour productivity. Through new possibilities. Using these system, it is possible to spray
imitating or extending human abilities, robots overcome the pesticides and insecticides accurately and precisely on the
significant human limitations including the need to work in harmful pests only without harming plants or other beneficial
challenging agricultural conditions. Robotics and automation insects. Drones are currently available for use in crop spraying
of agriculture can help to minimise shortages in both the year- applications and provide an ability to automate, which
round and seasonal labour markets. These innovations offer a replaces some labour-intensive activities. The combination of
high potential for improved agricultural production [4]. the sensors, the GPS, and the laser on the board helps the drone
Agriculture is a dynamic sector, the problems in agriculture change the position and the spraying harvest easily and adjust
are not generalised by AI and robotics based approach, and a the spray rate according to the field's height, wind speed,
specific solution is provided to a particular complex problem geology topography [29].
V. APPLICATIONS OF AI AND ROBOTICS IN AGRICULTURE AND The robotic rovers, which can move autonomously in the
THEIR CURRENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENTS agriculture fields, are fitted with image sensors and cameras
and actuators. These sensors can capture the images of the
A. Plant disease and pest identification and detection crops. The images are used as input for the deep learning
Plant or crop diseases, and insect infestation are one of the neural network model, which identifies the pest or harmful
severe worry for the farmer, as these could lead to a significant insects in the field, and can activate the actuators that control
reduction in the harvest and income [25]. To manually identify the pesticide sprayers to precisely target the pest on which
diseases and the pest at the early stage requires the substantial pesticide is to be sprayed.
knowledge and experience for any person, and the prediction
may not always be correct. The improvement in the field of
machine learning (ML) in artificial intelligence made it
relatively easy and fast to identify these diseases and pest’s at
an early stage. The prediction model is created by an artificial
neural network trained on a massive dataset of images of plant
disease and pest’s. Thus the model learns about the plant
disease and pests, and becomes very good at predicting it
[26].
By using a smartphone app which is powered by the
machine learning model. The user captures the image of the
plant and feeds it as the input for the AI model to predict , the
model classify plant diseases and the pest’s by appearance
and visual symptoms of the plant. After identification, It
provides the information regarding the diseases or the pest’s, Fig. 2. Pesticide spraying Drones

3
C. Precision weeding robot
weed is a plant which is unwanted in agriculture farms,
which grows alongside the food crops [30]. Weeds are
harmful to the food crops in many ways, damages caused by
the weeds are significant such as the reduction in crop yield,
increasing the cultivation cost, reduction in crop quality, also
weed harbours pests, insects and other diseases for the crop,
and the weed consumes more water and restricts the water
consumed by the food crops[31].
According to the research conducted by Thomas K.
Pavlychenko [32], a pioneer in weed experimentalist on weeds
found that the competition between the weeds and food crops
for water and nutrition starts at the root, where their roots
overlap with each other and restrict the water consumption by
the food crops.
Weed picking is one of the most labour intensive and time-
consuming process. Numerous approaches for automating the
weeding process have been developed after decades of study
and development. The critical problems are to distinguish
between crop and weed, and identifying the position of the
weed. Computer vision is the technique most commonly used.
Studies differ in terms of crop or weed types, the complexity
of the visual environment and the sensors used[28].
The robots powered by AI has the potential to automate
this labour-intensive task. The robots are fitted with the
robotic arm and various other sensors and actuators. The
robots make use of deep learning, which enables it to identify
different weeds and distinguish between weeds and the crop,
by this the robot can precisely identify the weed and pick it
up without harming the crop.
Fig. 3. Weed picking robot
D. Irrigation
The agricultural industry uses 70% of the world's available
freshwater sources [33]. Moreover, with the growth of
population , the food demand is growing. Which forces us for
the need to establish more effective solutions to make sure the
proper usage of water supplies for irrigation. Automatic water
supply scheduling techniques replaced manual irrigation
based on soil water measurement. Plants water requirement
relied on different atmospheric parameters such as moisture in
the air, speed of the air, radiation from the sun, and even crop
factors such as growth rate, soil composition, soil conditions,
and disease were taken into consideration when implementing
autonomous irrigation systems [34].
The main goal of developing such autonomous system is
to reduce the usage of resources and increase the efficiency
and productivity without the intervention of a significant
amount of human resources, by detecting water levels, soil
temperature, nutrient quality, and weather forecasting.
Automatic irrigation device are placed in the farm-field using
wireless drip irrigators, tools such as fertility sensors and soil-
PH sensors are installed to assess soil fertility-rate by
detecting the percentage of primary ingredients of soil such as
potassium, phosphorus. This approach maintains soil
composition and fertility and ensures the optimal utilisation of
water supplies.
Fig. 4. Automatic irrigation using IoT devices
E. Robotic harvesting
Harvesting is the process of collecting or gathering of
ripened fruit or the crop from the agriculture farms.
Harvesting is one of the most labour intensive and time-
consuming activity of the growing season [35]. In order to
counter the impact of labour shortages, harvesting robots are
built and used. These robots usually use robotic arms and
image recognition to find and grab fruits. Research and
developments are undergoing in order to build robots capable
of identifying, recognising and deciding whether the fruit is
ripe for harvesting and harvesting without damaging.
The gathering of the fruits from arboraceous plants, shrubs
or herbaceous is a challenging task to robots. However,
several robots have been developed, implemented and
assessed for strawberry, tomato, asparagus, cucumber, lettuce,
mushroom, orange and many others. For the development of
robotic harvest systems, fruit identification and localization
are very important.
In general, stereo camera and a robot arm were fitted in the
harvest robot. Two main tasks are involved in the automated
harvesting of fruits by a robot are, (1) identification of fruit
and localization on trees using computer vision with a sensor,
(2) movement of the robot arm to the location of the detected
fruit and fruit harvest by the end effector without disturbing
the target fruit and its tree [36].
The use of deep neural networks has also contributed to
the creation of new object detectors for example, Faster
Region-based Convolutional Neural Networks (Faster R-
CNN) which have been used for fruit detection and
identification [37].
4

Fig. 5. Harvesting Robot
F. Robotic seeding or sowing system
Sowing is the planting process. The procedure of casting
handfuls of seeds over prepared soil is hand sowing or
planting. A drag or harrow is typically used to incorporate the
seed into the soil. This technique is still used in some cases,
even though it is labour-intensive. To sow evenly and at the
desired rate practice is required [38].
For the implementation of the robotic seeder, many robots
were designed and tested. A seeding system was developed
using a reciprocal cell plate, the robot draws the coated seeds
into a tray, where each cell fits a matching aperture. The
working rate of this system was four times greater than that of
manual operation and there were relatively few seeding errors
[39]. Another autonomous agriculture robot prototype has
been designed by Naik and team of researchers where the only
human input is the distances between grain rows and crops,
the robot utilizes IR sensors to Identify plant row [39].
Automation of this operation is essential in greenhouses, as
many cultivated plants need regular and major planting
procedures due to their high plant density and limited life
cycle [37].
Fig. 6. Seed sowing robot
G. Farming applications
Farming applications are web or mobile applications
which covers a wide range of devices and the sub-categories
include voice, data, network and connectivity technologies. In
the mid-2000s, the wave of application growth was catalysed,
and gained considerable traction at the beginning of 2010s,
reshaping how the world grows and feeds.
A variety of software’s, techniques and services were
developed to bring more data and efficiency into the
agriculture sector. Applications designed to help farm-related
decisions and management are usually web-based software
applications that incorporate predictive analytics and machine
learning algorithms. Companies such as Granular [40] and
FarmLogs [41] offer a series of web applications for collecting
and reviewing data to produce predictions and
recommendations. This software allows growers to make
decisions that will help them track and manage costs, plan
production and make informed decisions.
Using predictive analytics and machine learning,
companies such as Agrilyst and Farmers Business Network
[42] can provide farmers with tools for decision-making on
crop production to improve yields. These tools often capture
data from various sources such as drone-mounted multi-
spectral cameras, satellite imagery and other sensors [12].
Fig. 7. Farming applications
H. Pollination robot
At present, pollination is done by animal pollinators. It is
estimated that one-third of all food consumed by humans is
the result of these pollinators, which are biotic agents that
transfer pollen, such as honey bees, moths, butterflies, other
bees and birds. Food production is decreasing due to a
dwindling number of natural pollinators, these natural
pollinators are deciding in population due to current
agriculture practices such as improper use of pesticides and
insecticides [43]. In order to to reduce its impact on ecological
relationships, ecosystem conservation and stability, the
research and developments are being carried out to develop a
robot pollinator.
For future precision farming, pollination carries out to be
one of the core tasks, which is the transfer of pollen from one
flower to another [44] . When large-scale pollination is
required for sustainable agriculture, such as field crops,
orchards or commercial seed production, new technologies
need to be explored in order to overcome the shortage of
natural pollinators.
A robotic micro-air vehicle (MAV) [45] pollinator (MPr)
is one of the new solutions, which is the autonomous
pollination system using robotic micro air vehicles with
flapping wings. Each robotic swarm of MAV is managed by
the central control system (CCS) via wireless signal
connections. Real-time field data, such as crop and flower, are
collected by cameras and other sensors (e.g. thermal sensors)
to the CCS. Intelligent CCS produces control signals. The
system is designed using computational intelligence (CI) [43].
5
Fig. 8. Pollination robot
I. Crop monitoring
Advanced sensors and imaging technologies have given
farmers with several different methods to improve yield
production and decrease crop damages. New drones mounted
sensors with high definition cameras are the farmer's eyes in
the sky for an optimum survey, data collection and analysis
procedures. These techniques are continuously being
developed and tested. The aerial robot is a human pilot-free
aircraft. This type of robots can be controlled wirelessly by a
human flight controller or independently operated under on-
board computer control (Unmanned air vehicle). These robots
are popularly known as drones [46], which are designed in a
variety of types using various technologies to fly them.
The data collected by the drones allow farmers to
understand crop diseases, pests, nutritional deficiency, excess
or lack of water and additional factors which may influence
growth of the crop [8]. In the agricultural world, the use of
aerial surveys is not new. Satellites were used to inspect large
fields of cropland and forests for over a relatively long lime,
but with the use of Drones, a new degree of precision and
versatility is achieved[11].
Fig. 9. Crop monitoring drone
J. Chat bot for farmers
Chatbots are nothing but virtual conversational assistants
that simplify end-user experiences [47]. Together with
machine learning techniques, AI-driven chatbots have helped
us to understand natural language and communicate with users
in a more personalised way. This facility is specifically
designed for agriculture in order to help farmers for obtain
answers to their unanswered questions, and also to provide
advise and crop-specific information [34] .
Fig. 10. Chatbot for farmers
VI. CHALLENGES FOR WIDE ADOPTION
The fact that the agricultural industry has a long history of
intensive labour might influence the way farmers approach
automation. Few initial experiments in automatic irrigation
and drone delivery of seed-related materials suggest that it is
highly mechanised and in unpredictable environments,
farmers will continue to choose human control over machines
in order to maintain control.
Agricultural production practices differ from developed
countries and developing countries in terms of usage of
technology and machinery for production [4]. These
technology gap leads lower production per given area in
developing countries compared to the developed countries.
meaning that, in order to produce a unit of crop yield the
number of workers required in a developing country is
significantly higher than that of developed country.
On the one hand, the high labour intensity of agriculture
makes it unsuitable for widespread use of robot systems, so
the widespread adoption of such systems is unlikely.
On the other hand, farmers might not be able to always
rely on robots. Robots have difficulty performing the tasks
they were created to perform. In some cases, robots will have
to be regularly restarted for repairs. They require continuous
electricity, and there are no reliable sources of power in
remote areas.
VII. SOCIAL IMPACT
With technical developments in AI and Robotics,
computers or robots operating alongside humans or for
humans have started to work on their own. So the way humans
live and work now and tomorrow is profoundly changing. As
one of the participants in smart agriculture, along with the 4th
Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0 [48], AI and Robotics
could contribute to job losses in future farming [43].
Furthermore, the demand for robotics itself generates new
jobs, such as robot repair and robot maintenance.
VIII. ECONOMIC IMPACT
From the economic perspective, AI and Robotic provide
high efficiency and better production quality, which will
potentially lead to improving crop productivity. These
innovations would have the greatest impact on large, relatively
low productivity sectors of the economy, such as Agri-Food.
6
 The UK Agri-Food chain, from primary agriculture to
retail, produces more than £108 billion p.a., with 3.7 million
workers in a genuinely multinational market generating £20
billion in exports in 2016 [49]. According to the research
conducted by PwC, AI could add $232 billion to the UK’s
GDP by 2030 [12]. alongside increasing economy, Robotic
and AI would also help to attract skilled workers and
graduates to the agriculture sector.
IX. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
AI and Robotics would have major environmental
benefits. For example, the food chain uses 18% of UK energy
consumption [50]. The agriculture sector, a massive consumer
of freshwater, accounts for 70% of all water use globally.
Simultaneously, large-scale farm equipment does excessive
compaction harm to our soils, while several species of British
wildlife are at risk of extinction due to current agricultural
practices[49], including extensive use of herbicides and
pesticides, the industrialization of machinery. These problems
can be overcome by using AI and robotics-based solutions.
X. HOW TO OVERCOME FROM THESE CHALLENGES
The application of the AI and robotics in agriculture are
still developing, so evaluating the full extent of its influence
and capability remains to be decided. The possible effect of
Artificial intelligence and robotics on agriculture is
complicated and mixed, with wide-range of difference
between developed and developing nations, companies, Agri-
farms. At present, AI and Robotics face many barriers, such
as economic and technological barriers; in addition to these,
there are cultural and social effects.
Growingly understood that it is essential to make sure that
farmer's needs, priorities and expertise are thoroughly
combined with any new Artificial intelligence and robotics or
associated products, to overcome the challenges of adoption.
For the AI and Robotics based technologies to affect
agriculture, the Agriculture and food sector needs to
understand the change in the people's mindset and
requirements.
Above all, there is the requirement to form a group of
graduates of physical engineers who are further sufficiently
familiar with biological principles and agriculture, and vice
versa, to develop a complementary group of biology graduates
to understand the possibilities offered by related engineering
and Artificial intelligence components. This enables the
society to work collectively to create bidirectional bonds
between how the next generations of engineers will enable
emerging biological sciences, plant breeding, and soil health
[51].
CONCLUSION
The review covers some of the vital research articles and
developed solutions in the field of Ai and Robotics for the
agriculture sector till today. To address this multi-dimensional
domain, only a few innovations and solution approaches were
considered. This review paper is created to provide a glimpse
of innovations that are taking place in Ai and robotics for
agriculture. Furthermore, its social, economic, environmental
impacts along with the problems for the broad adoption of
these techniques were discussed. The rule-based expert
systems were widely used in the early 1980s and 1990s, while
the artificial neural network was used from 1990 onwards.
Deep learning models and computer vision systems have
played a dominant role in the development of various
application in the agriculture sector. For example, Plant
disease and pest identification and detection system using ai
powered smartphone application, Target spraying of
pesticides robots, Precision weeding robot, smart irrigation
using of IoT devices, Robotic harvesting system and many
more. The transition from labour-intensive to advanced
technology in agriculture tend to accelerate int the upcoming
years and will give rise to new growth possibilities and
creative business models, with a range of creative offerings in
the sector.
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