Robotics Tech Helps Feed the World
October 09, 2023
Blog
What comes to mind when you read the word “robot?” Many people may think of pop culture icons like R2-D2 in Star Wars or Optimus Prime in Transformers. Robotic technology is often considered a futuristic concept linked to a fantasy world.
But advanced robots have been around for decades where you might least expect it: the farm. Robotic technology can be found in all stages of farming, from tractors and planters that place seeds into rows with remarkable accuracy, to sprayers that nurture crops, and combines that harvest at the end of the season. Meanwhile, farmers are up against the monumental challenge of feeding a growing population with less available land, labor, and resources. Without automated help, doing the physical work in the field while running the business of the farm would be incredibly difficult. This is especially important as farmers face extreme variability, complicated and time-sensitive decision making, and a decreasing labor pool. To compound the challenges, the world's population is expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, increasing the global food demand by 50%. Robots help farmers operate at scale and do more with less, saving on costs while producing greater results.
Performing intricate tasks on a large scale
Farming consists of hundreds of tasks that build upon each other. The four main stages of farming are: tilling (preparing the land), planting (placing seeds in the ground), spraying (nurturing plants), and harvesting (gathering crops). Each in-field job uses smart agriculture machines, which act as factories on wheels, focused on doing a specific “big picture” job made up of many smaller tasks. If any of the steps in this process aren’t performed at their best, it impacts every other stage of the growing cycle, and potentially future seasons.
This isn’t farming in your backyard garden. The average farm is roughly 5,000 acres (about 4,000 football fields) and can have more than 750 million plants. Farmers can’t operate precisely on that kind of scale without automated help.
The real-world of robotics
Advanced robotics and technology create a connected environment in which farmers can prevent error. With one planting season per crop per year, farmers only have around 40 tries over their whole career to get it right. Within those 40 tries, farmers face extremely tight windows to accomplish jobs like planting seeds. Leveraging incredibly smart machines addresses variability with controlled actions throughout the farming season. These machines are equipped with sensors that process an enormous amount of data that enables real-time adjustments and automatic pre-determined actions. All this takes pressure off the farmer and helps achieve more consistent results.
During tillage, autonomous tractors leverage AI, sensors, and GPS technology to prepare the soil to grow crops. Following tillage, a planter uses sensors and positioning technology to ensure each seed is optimally placed in the ground. Considering each seed is an investment, it is crucial that the seed is planted precisely for the best chance at a healthy plant. To paint a picture, a planter can be 40 feet wide, with 16 different robots across its arms, all placing seeds in the ground at the same time. Planters can hold 14 million soybean seeds at a time. As the planter goes through the field, robotic technology enables seeds to be placed at the appropriate spacing to encourage optimal growth. With this advanced technology, each row-bot unit can seamlessly make automatic adjustments and plant up to 100 seeds a second.
Once the seed is planted, it requires nutrients and by using robotic sprayers, farmers can ensure each seed only receives what it needs to help its growth. Of course, farmers must also protect plants from weeds that will compete with the crop. Sprayers use deep learning and robotics to “see” every plant in the field and differentiate a weed from a crop. The sprayer’s boom unfolds like a Transformer, using its 36-computer vision “eyes” to see as it moves across a field. Computer vision can process visual information too small for the human eye to see from the cab of the sprayer. This enables the sprayer to only target weeds with herbicides. In turn, this helps a plant’s growth and reduces the use of herbicide by up to two-thirds.
When it is time for harvest, farmers use another powerful robot, called a combine, to make automated adjustments and avoid any damage to the plant it is collecting from the field. By leveraging data from sensors, robotic technology enables combines to perform these tasks at scale with greater accuracy and precision so farmers can ensure the best yield from their fields and feed the growing population.
Robotics now and in the future
By uniting agriculture machines and robotic technology, farmers are equipped to do more with less. With greater precision and consistency, farmers can increase yields, save on labor costs, and spend more time on the overall business of managing their farm. Just like R2-D2 helped save the Galaxy and Optimus Prime helped defend the Earth, robotic technology is helping farmers protect their land to meet the large-scale production demands that are necessary to feed a growing population.
Tiffany Ingersoll is a senior product manager in application automation at John Deere. She helps create world-class products by uniting technology and vehicle design to generate value. During 22-plus years with John Deere, one of her favorite experiences includes her participation in developing See & Spray Select and Ultimate, in which she collaborated with high-talent individuals across multiple organizations to deliver the solutions to customers.
