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Justification

In the original Star Wars movie, Luke Skywalker's uncle bartered for the sale of two robots that would help him on the family farm. These robots were R2D2 and C3PO, who would go on to help save the galaxy from the evil Empire. Although we do not expect our farm robots to be able to save the galaxy, we hope that they will be able to make farming easier and provide a more efficient source of crops. What are the advantages and disadvantages of automating our farming efforts and is the cost in time, labor and money worth it?

Here is what James Pinkerton has to say about the role of technology and automation in American agriculture [9]:

"That's the path America took on its way to becoming a great power. In agriculture, the big breakthrough came in 1831, with the invention of the McCormick Reaper. Mass-produced in Chicago, the reaper enabled two men to cut as much grain in a day as a dozen or more men using traditional reaping hooks. As a result, labor was freed up to work in factories, accelerating the Industrial Revolution - and the American Dream.

Yet, it's noteworthy that the reaper and similar productivity enhancing inventions came to the American North, not the South. In slave-holding Dixie, where labor was free - if you don't count flogging and lynching and putting down bloody uprisings as costs - there was little incentive to develop labor-saving technology. The low-tech status quo seemed quite OK to plantation owners."

In other words, Mr. Pinkerton is saying that technology and automation are nothing new, however, if a cheaper alternative is available, then farmers will take it as farming is a labor and money intensive effort. Mr. Pinkerton goes on to say that 4/5 of all farming in America is already done with machines [9], though these machines are not automated and that it is time for another revolution in agriculture: the automation revolution.

According to researcher Tony E. Grift at the University of Illinois, using robots in agriculture is nothing new and countries such as Japan and the Netherlands have been researching and building robots for use in agriculture for a number of years. However, he says these robots were designed to operate in a controlled environment. His robots are being tested in uncontrolled, outdoor environments, in other words, the real world [10].

Cost Effectiveness:

Farming is inherently a costly undertaking. Farmers must spend money on their labor force, machinery, seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, insecticides, transportation of crops, and other expenditures. Although farm bankruptcy rates were at their highest in America during the Great Depression, farm bankruptcy rates have been rising during the past 30 years and there are now 2/3 less farms in America than there was at the turn of the 20th century [11]. Tony Grift imagines a world in which huge, expensive farming machinery is replaced by smaller, more efficient and much cheaper robotic farmers. Grift claims to be using a "smaller and smarter" approach to farming. Grift asks the question "Who needs 500 horsepower to go through the field when you might as well put a few robots out there that communicate with each other like an army of ants, working the entire field and collecting data?" [12]

Grift has built robots used for agriculture for as little as $150.00 each. This beats the cost of many large, heavy machinery which sometimes costs tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, by employing robot workers the farmer is reducing his labor cost. He can essentially kill two birds with one stone. By utilizing cheaper agricultural robots he can reduce his machinery and labor cost in one stroke.

Environmental and Pollution Concerns:

Growing the food required to feed the USA and the world can be environmentally devastating. The most famous case of ecosystem collapse and failure is probably the great Oklahoma dust bowl of the 1930's. Farmers, using improper and unsustainable farming techniques, depleted the land to an extent that it turned to sand, and then the famous Oklahoma wind turned the sand into giant dust storms [13].

The intensity of farming has naturally progressed as the population increases and more people need to be fed. The use of fertilizer and pesticides has increased since World War II at an alarming rate. These products are damaging to the environment, running off and polluting local streams, rivers, and lakes, and soaking into the ground water that provides drinking water for people. Fertilizers contain nitrates and phosphates which are limiting factors in the growth of algae [13]. Although pesticides have the beneficial effect of killing off unwanted pests, it can also kill off other animal species and pollute water systems. In addition pest species become resistant to the use of specific pesticides, demanding the development of even more powerful and dangerous pesticides. In Suffolk County in Long Island, at least 13 different pesticides have been measured in the groundwater and at least 12 percent of the wells in Suffolk County have exceeded the safe drinking water guidelines for some pesticides [13]. In defense, the use of fertilizers and pesticides has had the benefit of increasing the amount of food produced per acre of land which farmers are always looking for ways to do [13].

Soil erosion is a major concern to farmland. It takes about 300 years for 1 inch of topsoil to form and on average, farmland erodes 10 times faster than is replaced by natural means[13]. Topsoil contains the nutrients plants need to grow and help to retain moisture in the soil which plants utilize in photosynthesis.

Clearly, something should be done about the environmental impact of farming. Can robots help? According to Tony Grift at the University of Illinois, yes, robot farmers can help the environment. He envisions robots which can target pests "Instead of applying all of this spray that might drift everywhere, a robot could actually 'spit' chemical at the plant with great precision, using a very small amount of chemical" says Mr. Grift [14]. Instead of applying large amounts of herbicides, researchers envision robots which can identify weeds and communicate with other robots to come help them pull and dispose of the weeds instead of applying large amounts of chemicals to defeat the weeds [14].

Applications of Robots in Agriculture:

What other applications are there for Robots in Agriculture? The following briefly lists some of the lines of research and applications of robots in agriculture [15]:

  • Unmanned Ariel Applicators - Unmanned robot vehicles could quickly and efficiently spray crops instead of a human controlled plane. This could easily save money as the plane would be smaller and through the use of sensors could be made to be more efficient and therefore safer and cheaper than mass spraying with a manned plane.
  • Robotic Milkers - Robots could milk more cows, more efficiently and safer than human milkers.
  • Robotic Sheepdogs - Robots could be used to herd sheep and other cattle.
  • Driverless tractors and Sprayers - Traditional tractor and spraying systems can be made to be driverless
  • Meat Processing Equipment - Robots can take the monotony out of meat processing and make it safer by not introducing possibly contaminated humans handling the meat.

You can view a brief history of agriculture and more in depth descriptions of current agricultural robots here.