Introduction


For centuries, farming has been a crucial component in human survival and development. Farming enabled people to settle down in communities, allowing them to specialize in certain fields of labor. This would eventually lead them to create new technologies to make their jobs easier and more productive. In the present day, farming has changed drastically from what it was just a century ago. In the United States, only 3% of the labor force is made up of farmers – and their food supplies are enough to feed Americans as well as “about 10 percent of total overseas consumption” [1]. However, because of the high outputs required, the safety of the environment is often compromised with high usage of pesticides and fertilizers [2]. Could agricultural robotics be the next step in preserving the environment?

Nowadays, robotic technologies – once thought to be relevant only to space exploration – are making their way back to the field of farming. For instance, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are being used in precision farming to identify the presence of nutrients and the contours of land [3]. In the years to come, even more of these technologies will be applied to the occupation of farming. Ultimately, the goal of agricultural robotics is to increase productivity in food production, while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. This paper proposes a collaborative robotic system to supervise the growth of plants while working with the farmer to eliminate detected problems.