Application of Mobile Robot in Agriculture

The new blue ocean is waiting for development!

Text | Peng Qing

On July 28th, Extreme Flying Technology released the mass-produced agricultural unmanned vehicle platform-Extreme Flying R 150 agricultural unmanned vehicle in Guangzhou. R 150 agricultural unmanned vehicle can realize intelligent and precise control and autonomous driving. A variety of operation modes and strong expansion potential enable it to realize a variety of unmanned and precise operations such as precision plant protection, agricultural materials transportation, epidemic prevention and disinfection according to different agricultural needs.

The new product of Feifei Technology confirms its optimistic prospect for mobile robots in the agricultural field. In fact, the application of mobile robots in agriculture is accelerating!

Patrol monitoring

At present, one of the main applications of mobile robots in agriculture is detection and monitoring. The structure of this kind of mobile robot is generally to install a series of sensors on the chassis to detect the growth of crops and collect information.

Monitoring and collection of agricultural parks

Fujian's first 5G demonstration agricultural park uses mobile robots for intelligent inspection.

The robot's "feet" can rotate and move 360 degrees, which can support it to walk freely in the agricultural park. It can automatically bypass when encountering obstacles, and supports automatic inspection, fixed-point collection, automatic turning, automatic return and automatic charging.

This 5G artificial intelligence robot has advanced artificial intelligence equipment. "Ears" are two 7-megapixel cameras, "eyes" are two 5-megapixel cameras, "overhead" are sensors for wind speed, carbon dioxide and photosynthetic radiation, and "mouth" is a temperature and humidity sensor, which can realize intelligent perception and real-time acquisition of agricultural production environment.

Intelligent data acquisition in corn field

The mobile robot is equipped with lidar, camera and weather sensor. You can also enter the corn field for intelligent data collection, automatically obtain plant growth cycle indicators and environmental indicators information, and intuitively monitor plant development through the information management system, without manual collection intervention, saving labor costs and improving collection timeliness.

Intelligent monitoring, analysis and management of crops

SMASH, a mobile robot with mechanical arm developed by a Japanese company, is a mobile agricultural "ecosystem", which can be used not only for monitoring and analysis, but also for managing crops.

It uses the latest information and communication technology to monitor and inspect crops and soil, analyze the collected information and provide clear and feasible information to farmers to support crop management.

For example, it can intelligently collect soil samples for analysis, monitor the growth status of crops, and then accurately locate and apply pesticides.

When farmers are busy with other jobs, SMASH can move independently, monitor crops, detect and treat diseases, saving farmers a lot of time.

Selection and processing

In addition to data detection and collection, another main application of mobile robots in agriculture is picking and processing.

Unattended picking and handling

A vegetable planting base in China took the lead in introducing unmanned AGV mobile handling robot to realize unmanned vegetable picking and handling and large-scale planting. In the future, more related agriculture will move towards large-scale planting, and the agricultural machinery automation industry will benefit.

In a greenhouse planting base, Coty's custom-made jack-up AGV not only needs to carry the vegetables under cultivation out of the open air to bask in the sun, but also needs to "cross" the ridge to the designated automatic charging area, which can complete the task well in the face of the rugged ground in the greenhouse, serious ash falling in soil cultivation and water accumulation in the cultivation tank.

Spray medicine

Using mobile robot to realize automatic spraying in orchard field is also the main research and development direction at present.

The "Orchard Spraying Robot" tested in Yucheng Eco-agricultural Science and Technology Demonstration Park in Shandong Province adopts crawler design and can run smoothly in the field. The robot adopts autonomous navigation, which can realize accurate spraying.

Compared with the traditional manual spraying or mechanical auxiliary spraying, this robot can reduce the labor intensity by more than 90%, and work 24 hours a day, and the labor efficiency will be greatly improved. At the same time, the separation of man-machine and medicine also protects farmers from pesticide poisoning.

In addition to these applications, mobile robots can also be seen in fertilization and weeding.

Agricultural robot technology is an important booster for the development of intelligent agriculture. At present, the investment in intelligent agricultural robots is increasing at home and abroad. Ai Changsheng, an expert in China Mobile Robot (AGV) Industry Alliance and a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering of Jinan University, once said: "At present, the application of mobile robots is mainly indoor, and the application fields such as outdoor scenes and large-scale heavy loads need to be expanded. The blue ocean market for AGV robots for agriculture and animal husbandry has yet to be developed. "

Robot manufacturers are gradually exploring various scenarios of agricultural applications, but the application of mobile robots in agriculture is still in its infancy. From a technical point of view, outdoor autonomous navigation, complex and uneven ground environment, and the cooperation between chassis and various facilities all make developers face more technical problems. The mature application of products will take some time to verify, but this is also a problem and a necessary process that every emerging market will face. Therefore, we believe that with the continuous maturity of technology and the improvement of market awareness, mobile robots will be gradually applied to the agricultural field in the future.