The use of agricultural robots has significantly increased during this pandemic state, especially to boost the production of food grains, meet the cumulative demands of people for food, and fight against the dangerous COVID-19 disease.
Agriculture Robots Helping Their Way Out in Combatting the Covid-19 Pandemic
Article from | Aishwarya Korgaonkar
Robotics and artificial intelligence are changing the panorama of agriculture sector at an alarming rate. However, the sudden rise of life-threatening coronavirus pandemic has caused a great impact on agricultural activities, thus impacting the growth of agriculture robots industry. The use of agricultural robots has significantly increased during this pandemic state, especially to boost the production of food grains, meet the cumulative demands of people for food, and fight against the dangerous COVID-19 disease. Dive in to get a clear picture of how agriculture robots are helping their way out in fighting against the covid-19 pandemic.
“High-tech farming” is no more an oxymoron. From advanced greenhouse farming to cloud seeding, agricultural robots are truly paving their way into the agricultural space, thus boosting the productivity of agricultural activities. These robots are contributing immensely by supporting farmers in filling the voids created due to labor shortages and taking the production process to advanced level. From cow-milking cobots to cow-herding drones—they have altered the agriculture sector beyond imagination!
Current Scenarios of the Agricultural Sector
The advent of automated farming has been considered as a boon for farmers. Since last decade, robotics and automation have been truly transforming the face of agriculture at an alarming rate. Currently, robots are being used to solve traditional farming problems and enhance farm productivity. Right from the development of automatic tractors to weeding robots, agriculture automation firms are upgrading the farming sector to a completely modern-day milieu.
Agriculture robot industry was seen going from strength to strength up until the sudden rise of novel coronavirus which emerged in China. The outbreak of this disease has left the entire world in turmoil. Government bodies worldwide have instructed complete or partial lockdown in various regions. With the stagnation in economic growth all over the globe, the agriculture robots market has also agonized a certain impact. However, research analysts are deliberating that in the upcoming future agricultural robots industry will observe significant rise over the estimated horizon, somewhere around 2023.
COVID-19 Crisis Prompts Extensive Use of Robots in Agricultural Sector
The extensive spread of Covid-19 pandemic has restricted the availability of farming supplies. This has resulted in complete breakdown or slowdown of farming activities for an erratic period of time. To beat this situation, government of many countries is encouraging high-tech farming methods and machineries for maximizing the yield.
Currently, the world is in need of huge technical interventions to surge the production of food grains, fruits, and vegetables. Every country is struggling for being self-contained in agricultural products, so as to be prepared for any eventuality in the future. According to experts, the only option to cope up with this pandemic situation and maintain food stock is to adopt advanced agricultural robots and techniques that involve minimum human intervention and cultivate maximum crops in minimum area.
The agriculture industry is in need of discovering advanced ways to improve crop production using automation and artificial intelligence technologies, thus limiting human involvement and safeguarding human health amidst COVID-19 pandemic. Robots that aid in monitoring of crops and soil and help in providing data of the land to farmers for predicting the condition of crops are currently in huge demand. Moreover, AI-based robots are needed to help improve the crop quality and detect the diseases in pests and plants. Development of such innovative robots are predicted to boost the revenue of agriculture robots market in the near future.
At present, several tech giants and startups are trying to fight agricultural issues during this pandemic situation by developing farming, weather, and irrigation technology solutions. For instance, Microsoft precision agriculture is striving to democratize AI for farmers all across the world.
After the recovery of COVID-19 pandemic, it seems dubious that farmers will get back to business like before. Instead, many will possibly try to cut down the threats stemming from requirement of human workers by automating many of their processes. Technologies such as autonomous tractors, drones, seeding robots, and robotic cultivators point toward a considerable decrease in farmers’ dependency on human labors.
Drones and Robots Repurposed for Disinfection
The emergence of COVID-19 crisis has augmented the usage of robots in different verticals. XAG Co., Ltd., formerly known as XAircraft, a Chinese manufacturer of agricultural drones who is focused on developing spraying machinery for the agriculture market has taken an initiative to help during this pandemic by putting its robots at service for disinfection. It is projected that an automatic-spray machine can be introduced in the Russia to help in battling against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another device invented by XAG is a self-directing vehicle called R80. This small vehicle aids in accessing zones with a greater threat of infection without threatening humans by substituting human-operated sprayers. Although, initially developed as a farm robot, R80 can also be used in several applications, for instance disinfection and monitoring of isolated areas. Hence, the XAG R80 is contributing a great share in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The development of such advanced agriculture drones and robots are sure to give a tremendous boom to the growth of the agriculture industry, post COVID-19 crisis.
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About Aishwarya Korgaonkar
Aishwarya Korgaonkar holds a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from the esteemed Mumbai University. Being creative and artistic, she leaped into the field of digital marketing and content writing. Her love for words makes her write creative and spellbinding content that adds colors to the world. She is keen about writing articles across different verticals and is always eager to work on challenging topics.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AgriTechTomorrow
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