Decreasing availability and increasing cost of farm labor is a critical challenge faced by the agricultural industry around the world. Robotics has played a key role in reducing labor use and increasing productivity in farming. Modular automation and robotics technologies developed in recent years, decreasing cost and increasing capabilities of sensing, control and automation technologies such as UAVs, and increasing emphasis by governments around the world in mechanizing and automating agriculture have created a conducive environment to develop and adopt smart farming technologies for the benefit of agricultural industries around the world.
In this presentation, Manoj Karkee discussed:
- Importance of precision and automated/robotic systems for the future of farming (Smart Farming, Ag 4.0);
- Summary of past efforts and current status of agricultural automation and robotics, particularly for fruit crop production; – Introduction of novel systems being developed in his program. (The technologies to be introduced include robotic fruit harvesting, fruit tree pruning, and crop thinning.)
- Major challenges and opportunities in agricultural robotics and related areas, as well as potential future directions in research and development.
Speaker: Manoj Karkee, Associate Professor of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University.
This is the second in the series of WSU-OSU Tree Fruit Extension webinars.
