The global Agricultural Robots and Mechatronics market has been estimated to reach USD 5.54 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 11.3% during the forecast period from 2015-2020
Agricultural robots and mechatronics are machinery that are used in agriculture to substitute human labour and perform tasks better than humans. This machinery is designed to operate in all weather conditions and in restricted environments.
Agricultural robots and mechatronics offer solutions to farmers. They assist or replace human labour required to produce the farm products. They help farmers in most of the tasks from ploughing to harvesting. They are used in crops as well as animal farms.
The major driving factor behind the market is the necessity to increase yields and reduce costs at the same time. They vastly reduce human intervention and are much more efficient than humans in agricultural practices. Other driving factors are the avoidance of harmful effects of chemicals used in agriculture on humans, especially in indoor farming and the ability of robots to work in all weather conditions. The major hurdle in the market is the affordability. The robots and mechatronics are a huge investment for farmers. Various farms require various farming methods and same robots cannot be used for all types of farms. This pushes research and overhead costs for robots and mechatronics manufacturing firms and thus increasing prices. Even though robots and mechatronics are fast evolving, there is still a large amount of development needed in agricultural applications.
The market is segmented into autonomous tractors, UAVs, agrochemical applicators, robotic milking devices and others depending on the type of usage. In addition, usage area Segmentation is done such as animal farming, crop production, forest control and others. Market study shows that crop production is the largest segment in terms of revenue. It is also growing at a faster rate in comparison to others. Robotic milking devices are wide spread in developed countries and can be termed as a successful adaption of mechatronic robots in farming.
Agriculture is humankind’s oldest and still its most important economic activity, providing the food, feed, fiber, and fuel necessary for our survival. With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, agricultural production must double if it is to meet the increasing demands for food and bioenergy. Given limited land, water and labor resources, it is estimated that the efficiency of agricultural productivity must increase by 25% to meet that goal, while limiting the growing pressure that agriculture puts on the environment.
Robotics and automation can play a significant role in society meeting 2050 agricultural production needs. For six decades robots have played a fundamental role in increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost of industrial production and products. In the past twenty years, a similar trend has started to take place in agriculture, with GPS- and vision-based self-guided tractors and harvesters already being available commercially. More recently, farmers have started to experiment with autonomous systems that automate or augment operations such as pruning, thinning, and harvesting, as well as mowing, spraying, and weed removal. In the fruit tree industry, for example, workers riding robotic platforms have shown to be twice as efficient as workers using ladders. Advances in sensors and control systems allow for optimal resource and integrated pest and disease management. This is just the beginning of what will be a revolution in the way that food is grown, tended, and harvested.
The mission of the RAS Agricultural Robotics and Automation (AgRA) technical committee is to promote research, development, innovation, and standardization in robotics and automation to enable safe, efficient, and economical agricultural production. AgRA is a forum where academic and industrial researchers and engineers meet to advance the state-of-the-art in sensing, mobility, manipulation, and management technologies applied to production of grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and horticulture and nursery crops. We welcome anyone interested in this exciting area to join and contribute to our mission.
griculture is one of our most important industries. It provides food, feed and fuel necessary for our survival. With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, agricultural production must double to meet the demand. And because of limited arable land, productivity must increase 25% to help meet that goal.
Consider these factoids:
Major US farming conglomerates are buying foreign land and beginning to farm there citing lower overall cost.
China is buying land in Africa and sending skilled workers to supervise those new farms.
Farmers and ranchers the world over are transitioning to precision agricultural methods, i.e., subdividing their acreage into many sub-plots, in some cases, right down to the individual plant/tree/animal thereby enabling increased productivity and lower overall costs.
Unmanned aerial vehicles are being used to map, observe, sense and spray.
Unmanned (or at least autonomous) ground vehicles are providing more precise movements and thereby enabling precision practices.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 2012 median pay for farm workers was $9.09.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there were 749,400 ag workers in 2012, down 3% (25,000) from 2011.
74% - approximate number of crop workers in the US who were born in Mexico or Central America of which more than half are likely to be undocumented (according to Fortune Magazine).
Cropdusters have the 3rd highest fatality rate among professions in the US. 90% of crop spraying in Japan is done using small unmanned helicopters.
ResearchMoz, in a 1/29/2014 report, projects agricultural robot market size to grow from $817 million in 2013 to $16.3 billion by 2020.
Thus the agricultural industry is in transition. And that transition differs country by country, state by state, region by region as well as by type of farming practiced: from primitive to conventional to precision to experimental. A little bit of everything is going on everywhere but the general trend worldwide is toward precision agriculture supplemented by advanced technologies including robotics.
Many factors are precipitating these changes in addition to global population growth and the cost and availability of labor: the diminishing availability and increasing cost of water, political and regulatory procedures and hold-ups; limited tillable acreage; better, cheaper and faster technological automation products; and climate change, to name just a few.
Modern farmers and ranchers are already high-tech. Digitally-controlled farm implements are regularly in use. There are partially and fully automatic devices for most aspects of agricultural functions from grafting to planting, from harvesting to sorting, packaging and boxing. Farmers use software systems and aerial survey maps and data to guide their field operations. They also use auto-steer systems included in many new tractors (or buy kits that do the same thing) which follow GPS and software guidance. Some farmers are already transitioning some of their operations to full autonomy. Thus forward-thinking farm owners today may be able to skip over slow, incremental improvements and jump directly to robotic and autonomous automation. But are the robots ready?
“Will agricultural robots arrive in time to keep fruit and vegetable costs down?” (from conglomerates to start-ups) attempting to provide robotic solutions for farming problems and explores what they are doing, when their products will be available, and at what cost.
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