Robots poised to transform agriculture

Purpose This paper aims to illustrate the growing importance of agricultural robots by providing details of recent product developments and their applications. Design/methodology/approach Following a short introduction, this first discusses a range of agricultural applications of drones. It then provides details of a selection of mobile field robots and their applications. Finally, concluding comments are drawn. Findings Commercially available aerial and terrestrial robots are playing a rapidly growing role in a diversity of agricultural practices. Key capabilities and benefits include detecting crop stress and disease, predicting crop yields, reducing agrochemical use, overcoming manpower shortages and reducing labour costs and facilitating precision agricultural practices such as highly localised pesticide and herbicide application and the replacement of large, heavy agricultural machines by fleets of small, lightweight robots. Originality/value This provides a detailed insight into the many ways in which robots are transforming agricultural practices.