Applications of Robotics in Agriculture & Animal Husbandry

Agri-Robotics for Sustainable Agriculture & Animal Husbandry

Agriculture &  Animal Husbandry are  strategically important sectors of the world’s economy. Farmers need to produce even more food for the growing global population while keeping product quality high. Innovations, like robots, help farmers to achieve these goals. An increasing range of electronic technology and robots are getting to work in animal husbandry, from measuring out food rations to milking and other basic functions in stabling where intelligent systems can now carry out tasks and monitor environmental parameters, especially with a view to improved livestock health.

Robotics is playing a significant role in agricultural production and management. Modern farms are expected to produce more yields with higher quality at lower expenses in a sustainable way that is less dependent on the labor force. Agricultural robots is an effective description for autonomous machines that are able to carry out different repetitive agricultural tasks on the farm-from land preparation to harvesting – without direct human intervention. It is a promising solution for digital farming and for handling the problems of workforce shortage and declining profitability. Agricultural scientists, farmers, and growers are also facing the challenge of producing more food from less land in a sustainable way to meet the demands of the predicted 9.8 billion populations in 2050. Agricultural field robots on the other hand contribute to increasing the reliability of operations, improved soil health, and improved yield. Most of the developing countries including India facing agricultural labor shortage problem. A major portion of youths from village shifting to urban for led better life. As a result, agriculture operation gets delayed during its peak seasons due to a labor shortage. Human, animal, and Mechanical power source are utilized in agricultural operation in terms of seed bed preparation, tillage, seeding or transplanting, irrigation, intercultural operation and harvesting. Average power availability on Indian farm is about 2.02 kW/ha. Robotic automated systems with camera and GPS navigation has been tried in weeding, spraying and harvesting operations. The main challenge to the agricultural researchers around the world to perceive sustainable agriculture by judicious use of ever limiting natural resources and prevention of environment. Robotic technology in agriculture has for various operations like seeding, planting, spraying, weeding, harvesting and post-harvest operations. Therefore, application of robotics in agriculture is a complex process, which requires expert system in dealing with variable and unstructured environment and does the intended work.

Livestock operations are becoming more efficient with new high-tech gadgets. This includes new products and technology available for cattle, dairy, pork, and poultry operations. As consumers continue to demand better animal welfare and improved sustainability across the livestock sector, new innovations are emerging that enable producers to monitor herd health in real-time, prevent disease outbreaks, and optimize nutrition. Nevertheless, the growing population, rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and new developments in robotics have caused the world of livestock management to explode with innovation.

Robotics: Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural depositions, manufacture and application of robots. Robotics brings together several very different engineering areas and skills. Robotics is related to the science of electronics, Engineering, mechanics, mechatronics, and software.

Livestock Robotics is the newest development in the area of automation and robotics for livestock production. It improves the life of farmers and animals. Combined with extensive knowledge and experience in design, sensing, automation, robotics and the conditions in the livestock husbandry, makes the life of animal easy and compatible.

Milking robot: Robotic milking is an important link in the food chain defined as “from grass to glass”. Advantages of Robotic Milking are –

• Elimination of labour – The farmer is freed from the milking process and associated rigid schedule, and labour is devoted to the supervision of animals, feeding, etc.
• Milking consistency – The milking process is consistent for every cow and every visit and is not influenced by different persons milking the cows. The four separate milking cups are removed indi-vidually, meaning that an empty quarter does not stay attached while the other three are finishing, resulting in less threat of injury. The newest models of automatic milkers can vary the pulsation rate and vacuum level based on milk flow from each quarter.
• Increased milking frequency – The milking frequency may increase to three times per day, however typically 2.5 times per day is achieved. This may result in less stress on the udder and increased comfort for the cow, as on average less milk is stored. Higher frequency milking increases milk yield per cow, however much of this increase is water rather than solids.

Poultry Patrol Robot: The poultry Patrol Robot is an autonomous robot designed for use in poultry barns to improve animal welfare and cut down on a producer’s need to constantly walk the barns doing surveillance.

The robot could also detect disease through other methods like feather discolouration, missing feathers, burns on their breasts and even respiratory issues via audio recording. “If a bird is coughing due to a respiratory issue all of a sudden you have a robot that can immediately say there’s a biohazard in the barn,” Poultry Patrol Robot can expand across the entire poultry industry from measuring angular limb deformities for breeders to automatically collecting eggs for the egg industry.

Dairy cattle:

The idea of a milking robot emerged over 100 years ago. Gustaf de Laval, an engineer from Sweden, patented the first milking equipment in 1894. And 30 years ago, in 1992, a Danish company Lely presented Lely Astronaut, the first fully automatic milking system. This technology was considered a revolution in dairy production. A few years ago, the plants were equipped with milk quality control and cow health monitoring technologies.

Another interesting technology is a tracker for cows which is somewhat similar to human fitness watches. The process is as follows:

First, they measure the number of steps and chewing activity and send alarm signals in case of any behavioral problems. Next, each cow is given a unique responder on its neck strap, ensuring individual monitoring of each animal. There are clever calculators that are installed in the software to compose the best ratio for each cow. Lastly, there are drones that monitor large pastures, and can quickly detect the lost animals and turn them back. The agricultural industry is the largest purchaser of drones, with nearly 80% of commercial drones.

In addition, dairy producers also use automatic hoof washers, lighting systems, robots for cleaning the manure, and automatic brushes to clean cows and make them a massage. Everything to make the cows feel happy and healthy!

Robots in poultry:

Biosecurity is one of the most critical issues in poultry production. Keeping certain humidity and temperature levels and taking sanitary measures are vital for preventing disease outbreaks. Robot cleaners wash and clean the territory. They are also capable of airing and turning the litter in poultry barns. All these measures help to keep the level of ammonia gases under control.

Many farms are switching to keeping layers on the floor rather than in cages to make them feel more comfortable. However, hens often lay eggs randomly on the floor, not in unique baskets for eggs. Specifically, a robot moves along the barn and gently urges birds to change their position. Thus, birds are not standing still. It is better for their physical condition and reduces the risk of accidental egg-laying. Still, if hens have laid eggs on the floor, a special robot will come and help to collect all of them!

A ChickenBoy system is positioned on the ceiling and monitors the situation in the barn. It can detect ill and inactive birds, abnormal behavior, excessively wet litter, etc. Farmers are tracking the process on a PC screen.

Robots in the swine industry:

Non-invasive weighting determines a pigs’ weight remotely. The technology uses pig photos and deep neural networks. Farmers do not need to catch a pig and physically move it to a scale for weighting. As a result, pigs feel less stressed.

And lastly, there are unique cameras fixed on tripods that automatically count the number of heads. The devices are equipped with sensors detecting pigs’ movement so that it does not matter to one animal twice. Smart cameras also track pig behavior and send signals in case of abnormalities or injuries.

To sum up, let’s consider which benefits and challenges can be offered by modern technologies.

Advantages of using robots: 

1.) Technologies save time by taking up long-lasting routine cleaning or head counting tasks.

2.) Saving time, in its turn, helps to save labor hours and money.

3.) Elimination of human factors minimizes the risk of mistakes.

4.) Minimization of human contact with animals reduces the risk of disease outbreaks.

5.) All this, in its turn, increases the quality of final products purchased by consumers.

6.) Last but not least important is that modern technologies improve animal welfare. Animals have more freedom, are cared for, feel less stressed, and are healthier.

Disadvantages of using robots:

1.) Concerns that a technical failure in an automated system might lead to a significant disruption of production processes.

2.) Robots are costly. Their maintenance is expensive too. Some farms cannot afford it.

3.) Farms have to spend time and money to train specialists who will be managing robotic equipment.

4.) When robots perform most tasks, many people in the countryside will be jobless.

Still, robots in agriculture promise significant prospects in sector development, sustainable production, and increasing product quality despite potential challenges. We’ll keep tracking the technology development, and hope that we will share another article about new, more amazing technologies in a couple of years.

oseph Engelberger, who built the first industrial robot in the United States, used to quip that he couldn’t say what a robot was, but could recognise one when he saw it. The same is increasingly true on the farm, where you may find a small robotic device keeping barn floors clean as well as large robot milkers. Both machines need no touch from human hand and reduce manpower needs, ensure improved health and safety for farm workers and their herds, and more time to improve animal well-being.  Some recent innovations are described below.

Scientific Feed Management

Automation is widely applied in milking and feed management, even if Italian farmers find it hard to keep up with the cutting-edge and automatic systems are less widely used than they could be.

Fractional feed distribution’s advantages are well known.  In cows, pH level is kept constant and peaks are avoided with a reduction in acidity and improved milk production. The optimum is a ration supplied 5-6 times a day, although this is out of the question with current technology.

The approach is handled by AFS, or an Automatic Feeding System by which the preparation and distribution of feed is automatized. An AFS plant has a warehouse for storing feed ingredients, mixing plant and distribution devices.  Only one of these three phases may be automated because of lack of funding and/or the farm’s or the stable’s organisation and structure.

The market offers various devices, but they are all either fixed or mobile. A fixed unified mixer is fed automatically by conveyer belts or augurs controlled by a central computer. The operator simply has to monitor whether the conveyor belts are adequately supplied, also taking account of the fact that they may have a high capacity sufficient to cover supplies for a number of days. A set of load measurement cells are located under the mixer’s main hopper to monitor continuously the quantity of each ingredient added to the ration. The computer compares the data to its memorised recipe and activates the conveyor belts so as to keep the two in line. After loading and mixing, the feed is dispatched by conveyor belt to feed wagons for distribution to the mangers. The transporter may be aerial or ground based, using rails to follow a memorised route or guided by sensors sunk into the floor. Unloading is typically by conveyor belt. Power is almost always electrical, supplied by a battery pack recharged automatically when not needed. An aerial delivery system requires careful route design; especially to avoid creating difficulties for the normal equipment working on the farm, perhaps by ensuring the rails is high enough off the ground.

Mobile mixers are much more complex, but they are adaptable to stables of all kinds and herds of varying composition. The basic setup consists of one or more small mixers with hoppers of 2-3 m³ filled in a special area often called the kitchen. Loading devices are always automatic, whether sharp-edged buckets or conveyor belts.  Fixed plants are easy to automate for only part of the process; for example, mixer filling could be manual. But mobile mixers need full automation because they have to deliver a large number of mixers a day.

In this case too aerial delivery systems are available, but wheeled robots are more common. They follow a pre-determined route, distributing the rations and also using deflectors to push residual rations from previous deliveries closer to the manger. Safety sensors enable the machine to avoid obstacles or stop it when a person or an animal enters its operating range.

High-Tech Milking

Milking is surely one of the most critical aspects of milk production. Trained staff willing to handle the physical, chemical and biological risks 365 days a year and twice a day are difficult, which is one of the major reasons why robot milkers have been one of the main automated additions to the stable. Originally designed for herds of around 50 head, they are now spreading to larger herds, also thanks to the significant economic advantages. In Europe, many farms have over four robots in each stable, and some over 40.

An AMS or Automatic Milking System has one or more milking positions with robot arms to attach and detach the milking heads to the udders, a control computer and a series of additional devices to wash and disinfect the udder and the milking head. The machine can also eliminate automatically the first milk jets and, if need be, sort out milk coming from cows undergoing antibiotic treatment, which is unsuitable for sale. The most complicated piece of engineering is certainly the milking arm and its connected device for correctly locating the udder in space. Various methods are used: infrared, high frequency sound, lasers or TV cameras, to get a 3-D view. A single arm may also serve number of milking positions, reducing the robot’s total cost.

One clear advantage of the whole system is that the number of milkings per day can be increased, leading to a quantitative and qualitative improvement in production, especially robot milking is integrated with automated feeding to distribute feed in smaller quantities throughout the day.

Robot milking also means moving and guiding the flock automatically, as well as identifying the animals with suspect health conditions and separating them from the others. Recent robot models can in fact use milk’s conductivity or the presence of high levels of somatic cells in the milk to identify possible infections.

In these cases, the machine automatically separates out the milk from the animals in question to avoid spoiling the whole day’s output. The most advanced milkers can also analyse milk samples to determine progesterone levels and give earlier warning of when an animal will go on heat. Another possibility is to analyse urea in the milk to establish whether there is the right ratio of energy to nitrogen and to correct the feed mix if need be. These analyses are not made on all milk samples. Rather, the robot looks up each cow’s identification code on a database to check which need an analysis and to send a sample to the analyser if an analysis is required.

A new frontier in robot milking is the introduction of automation to existing stables. For this, the rotating type is best.  In this case, a number of robots do the job, some preparing the udder and nipple, others attaching the milker. There is no difference from a traditional robot, but productivity is greater (500-700 cows an hour in a 24-place milking shed) with a significantly reduced investment.

Useful, Small Robots

Because they cost less, smaller robots are certainly more widely used. Automating floor cleaning and pushing material such as feed where you want it involves essentially the same robot, to push feed to the manger or manure to the disposal channel.

For the latter case, a 300-400 kg steerable, battery-powered vehicle has a blade moved at 0.3-0.5 km/h. The robot is told which route to follow and when at the re-charging terminal. When the task is complete, the robot returns to the terminal awaiting new instructions. The vehicle is usually low so that it can move under gates and fencing and does not get in the way of the animals. Sensors, usually ultra-sound based, stop the device on contact with an animal.

Very similar designs are used for machines to push feed closer to the manger. Cows in fact pick out the best parts of the feed they are given, and in doing so push the rest away from the manger. The robot pushes the residue back with ineating distance.

Robots are manufactured from the robotics subject, in which programmable machines are constructed which could assist humans or mimic human moves. Robots had been originally built to handle monotonous tasks but due to the fact accelerated properly beyond their preliminary makes use of to perform duties like fighting fires, cleansing homes and supporting with quite tricky surgeries. Each robotic has a differing level of autonomy, ranging from human-managed bots that perform responsibilities that a human has whole control over to certainly-self-sustaining bots that perform duties with none outside impacts. Robots are changing our lives like sweeping robots patrol our residing rooms; interactive robots accompany our kids; industrial robots assemble cars; rescue robots seek and save lives in catastrophes; medical robots carry out surgeries in hospitals. Top tech organizations are in a regular race to change the manner robotics are applied in human being’s regular lives with a purpose to lead us to a simply interesting destiny.

1. ROBOTS WORKING FIELDS

Fields	Definitions
Manufacturing Companies	Robots are used in production to take on repetitive tasks, which streamlines the overall assembly workflow. Robots also collaborate with human beings for product production. Many roles are dangerous or encompass excessive volumes of materials, which may be dangerous to human workers. Even in the short-term, employees can also experience fatigue or become distracted due to the repetitive nature in their paintings, which could purpose them to make errors [1]. Robots, however, can avoid making such errors because of their dexterity and excessive degrees of machine mastering.
Logistics	Logistics robots automate the manner of storing and moving goods as they make their way through the deliver chain. They’re regularly utilized in warehouses and garage centers to prepare and transport products, a procedure known as intralogistics, however they can be utilized in different settings too. Logistics robots offer some distance greater levels of uptime over manual exertions, leading to primary productiveness profits and profitability for those deploying logistics robots [2].
Home Nursing	A home robotic is a form of carrier robotic, an wi-fi connecting robotic that is commonly used for household chores, however will also be used for education, entertainment or therapy. whilst maximum home robots are simplistic, some are linked to home networks or clever environments and are wi-fi to a high diploma.

 

Travel Voyages

Robots have become commonplace in the travel enterprise in current years, presenting textual content-based customer support, in addition to extra bodily interactions. In the long run, the main blessings are their capability to characteristic 24/7, with no need breaks or motivation, providing more consistency than humans might be able to do.

Health Protection

Robots are now used not simply inside the running room but additionally in medical settings to aid healthcare people and enhance affected individual care. The use of robotics and automation also extends to investigate laboratories in which they may be used to automate manual, repetitive, and high-quantity duties so technicians and scientists can attention their interest on greater strategic responsibilities that make discoveries take vicinity quicker. Robots in the medical discipline are reworking how surgeries are finished, streamlining deliver delivery and disinfection, and allowing companies to focus on attractive with and being concerned for sufferers.

III. OTHER APPLICATIONS OF ROBOTICS

Other than the above important fields, robots are currently working in different other fields too to help the mankind and the environment [3].

Those other applications are:

1. Helping combat woodland fires
2. Operating along human beings in production flora referred as Co-Bots Robots that offer companionship to aged individuals
3. Surgical assistants
4. Closing-mile package and food order shipping
5. Self-sustaining household robots that carry out obligations like vacuuming and mowing the grass Assisting with finding objects and wearing them in the course of warehouses
6. Used during search-and-rescue missions after herbal failures Landmine detectors in war zones

1. ROBOTICS HELPING ANIMALS IN DIFFERENT VETERINARY FIELDS

Fields	Definitions
Pet care	Pet cube is a robotic cam which can be placed on them so that it lets their owners to interact with their puppies and cats after they’re away from their place. People can watch their pets using a camera and record moments of their buddies. They also can communicate to their pets through the dice and toss which can be treated to them. This maintains humans closer to their pets even if they’re some distance away. Different generation makes it simpler to find their pet in the event that they escape from you or wander far from home. Whistle is device that you attach to your pet’s collar so you can locate their GPS location and realize exactly in which location they’re.
Fish care	The Robo Snail is a completely-computerized glass cleaner that forestalls algae from building up on the glass. With the Robo Snail, fish parents don’t have to fear about manually cleansing the tank, that could get grimy over time. This robot travels around the tank and continues it smooth without traumatic the fish citizens. There is also a robotic device called MOAI that cleans your tank while taking pictures and routinely sending them on your telephone [4]. Aquarium owners can agenda their tank cleanings at precise times and can even livestream their tank via this robot [5].
Maintain the zoo animals	Zookeepers want to make sure animals aren’t installed annoying conditions because of guests. To guard their health, zoo animals aren’t allowed to be uncovered to regular human noise, which is tough while the zoo is placed within the heart of a town with cars driving by and non-stop creation. The Helsinki Zoo and discussion board Virium Helsinki formed a partnership to investigate the noise experienced by using animals to look if they may make improvements. they are within the manner of analyzing noise tiers with the help of robot AI sensors. With these records, the zoo can change those enclosures maximum affected by metropolis sounds, lowering pressure degrees in animals and creating more fit surroundings for them.
Surgery for animals	As movement manages technologies have become more superior, surgical-assistance robots have grown to be extra particular. Robots help surgeons reap new stages of pace and accuracy at the same time as performing complex operations with AI- and pc vision?successful technology [6]. Some surgical robots may also even have the ability to complete duties autonomously, allowing surgeons to oversee approaches from a console

1. ROBOTS KEYHOLE SURGERY ON PIGS

Laparoscopic or keyhole surgical treatment requires surgeons to govern and stitch intestines and other organs through tiny incisions, a technique that calls for excessive levels of ability and has little margin for error. The crew chose to do “intestinal anastomosis”, an especially difficult keyhole system. A robot (STAR) has efficiently performed “keyhole” intestinal surgery on pigs with none useful resource from human beings, in step with a study from John Hopkins university. Soft tissue surgery in trendy is difficult for robots cutting-edge the unpredictability [7]. To address that, the superstar robotic become prepared with specialized suturing tools and imaging systems that might deliver extremely accurate visualizations. It’s great that the smart Tissue autonomous robot (megastar) handled the complex system “extensively better” than human doctors.

PENN VETS NEW BOLT CENTERS ROBOTICS CONTROLLED EQUINE IMAGING SYSTEM

Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center has completed installation of a progressive robotics-controlled imaging gadget for use within the standing and transferring horse. Bolton center veterinarians are growing the application-associated protocols for use of the system with massive animals, in collaboration with four-Dimensional digital Imaging (4DDI), the company at the back of the innovation of the gadget. The gadget is capable of taking pictures the equine anatomy in a way by no means before possible, whilst the horse is wide awake and load-bearing [9]. current computed tomography (CT) systems usually require the horse to be anesthetized, and are restricted to the parts of the animal that fit into the cylindrical machines. The robots can results easily circulate everywhere in the horse in any orientation whilst the pony is standing, so we are able to see many components of the anatomy we’ve by no means seen in advance and the process may be accomplished easily.

VETERINARY ROBOTS’ IMPLEMENTATION IDEAS IN INDIA

In India, many farmers depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood. Further to supplying milk, meat, eggs, wool, their castings (dung) and hides, animals, in particular bullocks, are the fundamental source of energy for each farmer and dairies. So, animal husbandry is very important in village areas. The wildlife animals are also given an equal importance. So, Veterinary field plays a very big role in India. But, the work for the Veterinary doctors is more way higher equal to the doctors in other fields. If robots are introduced in veterinary field there will be a massive improvement in the developing generations. By introducing robotics in this field, many operational crises can be avoided. Some of the areas in veterinary where robotics can be implemented are:

1. During animal surgeries to either help the doctor who is operating or do the whole surgery without any medical errors. While maintaining the animal husbandry like to provide foods for the animals on time regularly, checking their health in a daily basis, etc…
2. In homes where they grow their pets to check on them or monitor them when they are gone far away from their places. For monitoring the animal accidents and report the needed people on time for quick medical aid.
3. Creating a friendly robot for giving the lonely animals a company to have a great mental health.
4. Making a mini sensor robot which can be placed on the animals to locate their current location when they are lost their way.

 Scope of farm robots in India

Our farm equipment companies and researchers have developed a lot of small and heavy farm equipment for traditional farming needs but some kind of robotic and pneumatic mechanism are required in precision farming. If the robots are being used for weed control, that will help to reduce the herbicides usage and the produces will turn into an organic, the same way robots can be used for transplanting the seedlings to avoid intensive labor. We used to read in newspapers on few impressive innovative technologies by rural inventors i.e. electric motors can be operated remotely by cell phones, it’s very helpful to farmers in summer time since the power supply is irregular. If we think advanced intelligent machines in farming, Sensors or readers and hand held PDAs are going to be great helpful in computation and accuracy in farming. There are lot of hurdles taken in the agriculture sector in all countries but specially in India. Farmers decreasing in India a daily report from the newspaper. According to Shineveramya a famous writer gave a report mentioning that the “Farmers are eyes of our country. They are great men who provide food for us but now a day’s farmers are reducing more in number. Many are leaving the farming profession by telling some repeated common sentences that it is no longer profitable and none want to get losses and it is becoming risky day by day. So many disadvantages. Also the youngsters are not interested in that. So they are ready to work in construction companies and not in farmland.

Importance of Robotics in Agriculture & Animal Husbandry

As agricultural robots have already entered into farming sector, there would be a mobilization in farming too. The agricultural robots also help in the plantation process and also in the process of weed removal. This would help in the reduction of usage of pesticides which would, in turn, help the environment from getting polluted due to harmful chemicals. Due to the introduction of agriculture robot; there would be less labour required an individual can plan and implement the operations of farm by himself without depending on the availability of labour. The introduction of the motors which can be operated electrically by using remote is also very helpful mainly in the summers when the water would be inadequate. Sensors and the PDAs which are handheld are going to help the farmers in a drastic way in terms of computation and also accurate in the operations of agriculture. The workers on the farm will be paid very little wages when compared to the labour which is involved in the construction. These agricultural robots will decrease the requirement of manpower and thereby reduces the operating cost of the farm. The suicidal news of the farmers will be greatly reduced as the farmer will be able to work on his own and due to the improvement in technology, he can also decide what type of crop he has to grow and how to market it.

Farming Action with Robotics

Farming is the main source for the food and automation in agriculture is increasing the strength of it. In the coming five to six years, the use of agricultural robots and drones are estimated to increase by $30 billion. There are many real issues in the agriculture of the present day. The farming methods which are followed traditionally will make it hard to meet the efficiencies which are required by the present trend of the market. The farmers who are part of the countries which are already developed have been suffering due to the unavailability of the workforce. The development in the farming which is automated is used as an attempt to bring the solution to all these problems with the help of robotics. Nursery Planting: – Nurseries are the places where young plants are formed from the seeds which are planted in the outdoors later. The plants in the nursery are mostly sold to the consumers and gardeners directly, but they are also a beginning of the journey of food for new crops. There is a requirement of the automation in the nursery. HETO Agro technics and harvest automation are the companies which are providing solutions for seeding, warehousing the plants which are living in greenhouses, and also potting in an automated way. Crop seeding: – The plants which give food to start their life as a seed in the agricultural field. For sowing the seeds, the traditional methods are to scatter them by using a broadcast spreader which will be attached to a tractor. This spreader will throw many numbers of seeds all around the field, whereas the tractor helps by driving steadily and following a single path. This traditional method is not considered to be an efficient one as the seeds get wasted. Precision seeding which is done in an autonomous way will help in combining the robotics with geo-mapping. A map will be generated which gives information about the properties of soil such as the quality of soil, the density of soil, etc. at each and every point of the agricultural field. A tractor with a seeding attachment which is robotic will start placing the seeds at accurate locations and at correct depths so that every seed will get a better cha nce for growth. Monitoring the Crop and giving analysis:-It is very difficult to monitor the crops grow in the huge fields. Technologies like geo-mapping and new sensor are helping the farmers to get high level of information about the crops which they are growing. The drones and robots which are at ground level will give a way to get this data in an autonomous way. Companies which manufacture drone such as precision Hawk are offering farmers few with the packages which are a combination of robotic hardware and analysis software. This will help the farmer to take the drone into the agricultural field, start the software through a Smartphone or tablet and get a view of the crop which has been collected in real time. Robots which are ground-based, such as BoniRob will provides the farmers will detailed observations as they would be able to get very much close to the crops. Some of these agricultural robots can also be used for several other tasks such as irrigation and weeding. Irrigation:-Irrigating the crops will require a lot of water in the traditional method and it is considered to be not that efficient. Precision irrigation, which is assisted by the robot will decrease the water, which is wasted by targeting a few particular plants. Robots which are ground-based will negative among the crop rows in an autonomous way and pour the water directly at the base level of every plant. The advantage of robots is that they would be able to go into the area where the other machines of agriculture could not go. Crop weeding and spraying: – Some of the robots which perform weeding will not use any chemicals. For example, RoboCrop is the one which uses the vision of a computer for the detection of plants as it will be moved by tractor. It will automatically convey water to the spaces in between the plants in order to uproot the weeds. It is not efficient to spray pesticides and killers of weed onto the agricultural fields as it will cause harm to the environment. Robots will help in this situation by providing efficient methods. Thinning and Pruning: – Thinning is a method which involves decreasing plant density in order to give every plant a better chance for growth. Pruning is a method which involves cutting off the plants back parts so that there would be an improvement of growth in them. Harvesting and Picking:-Harvesting the crops like corn, wheat and barley are a bit easy. Harvesting can be done by making use of a combine harvester which can be automated. Few more crops like soft fruits are very difficult for harvesting as they need manual skill in performing tasks. The project, called clever robots for crops which have been funded by the EU is the one which is making very good progress on a few applications of harvesting. This harvesting includes apple harvesting, sweet pepper harvesting .

Advantages

Labour can be eliminated as most of the works are done by agricultural robots. Weeding, seed transplantation, fruit picking etc. are the main works related to the farm which needs manpower and the robots can handle all these. One agricultural robot can handle the work of approximately 30 workers. It brings us an opportunity of self-employment for those who are unemployed and thinks the farming profession as a nightmare. Through the introduction of agricultural robots, farmers will feel self-employed as their dependency on labour decreases. The investment can be done once and the profit would be huge as the operating costs decrease. It is one time investment then the expenditure of the farming will drastically. The use of fertilizer, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and water consumption can be reduced in very large percentage. It brings revolution in the farming, agriculture and cattle grazing. There will be a drastic increase in the production of crops. Productivity will be increased to a lot extent. Farming will never be an occupation which is tough and also brings youngsters into it which would thereby increase the food production of the world. Soil testing gives the information of the soil and that information when is taken as the intelligence this report is signaled and given to the artificial intelligence along the Robotics gives us perfect results that perhaps increases the quality and that’s why farmer can decide which type of crops to grow.

Disadvantages:-

Implementation of robotics in agriculture is very costly. The complexity of the farm increases and there is an equal risk if proper care is not taken by the controller. The labour employed to take care of the farm should be well skilled in the technology. The power cut problem in India would be a major nightmare for the farmers using robotic It is a report from a agriculture region Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states of India that more than 17,000 farmers have suicide and end their lives from 2006-2007. Indian farming and agriculture sector can be improved for a very large extent by the use of Robotics with smart intelligence devices and making smart robots that benefit to the agriculture sector and farming. All the researches are on and we need a good time for the establishment of the technology in the farming.

The future of farmers: keeping an eye on all the process behind a  computer screen while robots do the work on the land. This is essential in order to meet the growing demand for sustainable food.

 Conclusion

This paper provides a brief explanation of where robots play a great role and how the robots can be introduced and implemented in Veterinary field. It also gives the details of how robots are used in other countries in this field. Therefore, if robots are introduced in India at the veterinary field a very great impactful development can be achieved in this current generation. Robots should not only implement as human companion but also introduce as vet friendly.

Compiled  & Shared by- Team, LITD (Livestock Institute of Training & Development)

Image-Courtesy-Google

Reference-On Request.