A systems view of agricultural robots

Abstract

Many agricultural robots are being built around the world but, in most cases, these projects are focussing on developing the technologies for individual machines. This paper attempts to broaden the scope by taking a systems view and look at agricultural robots from multiple perspectives. A brief analysis is given from eight perspectives (in no particular order); Safety, energy, economics, environment, management, mechanisation, technology and society. By taking into account multiple perspectives, a better understanding of the overall system can be arrived at. Using past experiences from analysing adoption in precision farming, there would appear to be four issues that need to be resolved to improve the possibility of adoption. These are economic viability, ease of use, reliability and legislation or liability issues.