IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2023 - 4

F ROM THE ED I T O R ' S D E S K
Agriculture Is a Big Topic
How Can Robots Help?
By Yi Guo
Going to bed hungry is not in the memory
of my generation. But I remember
stories from my grandma about how
she struggled to feed her kids during
the Great Chinese Famine, when tens
of millions of people starved to death
because of natural disasters and domestic
policy errors. The war in Ukraine
has threatened food security (ensuring
everyone has enough to eat) worldwide.
Food prices are rising in America.
Agriculture is again in the center
of discussion because
of the challenges caused
by pandemic disruptions,
climate change,
economic recession,
and deglobalization.
In the 1830s, Cyrus
McCormick invented the
first mechanical reaper.
Before that, one highly
skilled farmer might only
be able to harvest a few
acres of grain in a day
using a scythe. With a
reaper, one man with
a horse could harvest
large fields in a day. The
mechanical tool improved
efficiency, and it was thus possible
to have much larger farms. Development
continued, and even more agricultural
machines were invented. Today a
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2023.3323157
Date of current version: 12 December 2023
driver in the air-conditioned
cabin of a harvester vehicle
can cover a few hundred
acres in a day. Innovation
in farm machines revolutionized
farming in the
United States and around
the world.
Agribots are being creOn
the other hand, labor
shortage has been a challenging
issue faced by farmers
in many countries. Farmers
in California employ a large
number of seasonal workers
to pick fruit by hand,
and most of the workers are
immigrants. Japan's aging
"
AUTOMATING
FARMS IS HARDER
BECAUSE OF THE
THAN AUTOMATING
FACTORIES
UNSTRUCTURED AND
LESS-PREDICTABLE
ENVIRONMENTS
INVOLVED.
"
ated to help farmers with weed control,
seeding, fertilizing, pest treatment, and
crop picking [1]. Needless to say, problems
in the farm field are
difficult. Vision sensors
can monitor whether
fruit is ripe, and a robot
arm can pick the fruit
when it is time. But
fruit does not come in
standard sizes (unlike
car parts). Depending
on weather conditions,
fruit moves around on
branches in the wind,
changes color or shape,
and may be hidden by
leaves. The ground may
be grassy or muddy with
people and animals wandering
around, which
makes a farm vehicle hard to move
around. Automating farms is harder
than automating factories because of the
unstructured and less-predictable environments
involved. Robots need to be
smarter, safer, and more dexterous for
jobs on a farm.
population has caused a shortage of
workers, and some fruits have become
too costly to pick. Labor shortage is
always one of the key factors to push
history and industrialization, now and in
the past. Roboticists have no choice but
to tackle the hard problems.
This December issue is a special issue
on agricultural robotics. I would like to
thank Guest Editor Carlos Montenegro
for proposing such a timely topic last
year. The issue is co-led by the Technical
Committee for Agricultural Robotics
and Automation of the IEEE Robotics
and Automation Society. I am grateful
to Eldert van Henten, who led the peer
review process, and the team of guest
editors, including Carlos Montenegro,
Marija Popovic, Stavros Vougioukas,
Alfred Daniel, and Guangjie Han, for
their dedicated service. Hope you enjoy
reading the issue.
REFERENCE
[1] " Using artificial intelligence, agricultural robots
are on the rise, " The Economist, Feb. 2020. [Online].
Available: https://www.economist.com/science-and
-technology/2020/02/06/using-artificial-intelligence
-agricultural-robots-are-on-the-rise
4
IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2023
1070-9932/23©2023IEEE

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7158-351X https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/02/06/using-artificial-intelligence-agricultural-robots-are-on-the-rise https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/02/06/using-artificial-intelligence-agricultural-robots-are-on-the-rise https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/02/06/using-artificial-intelligence-agricultural-robots-are-on-the-rise

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2023

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