8 Unique Ways Robots Make Farming More Sustainable

Robots don’t feel like the most intuitive inclusion on a farm. However, combining technology and nature is becoming more common because of how much robotics offers agricultural experts. It could be a reason a farm becomes more sustainable, especially as overfarming, severe weather and food demand place extreme pressure on the industry. How could robots improve people’s lives worldwide by expanding food access while reducing emissions simultaneously?

1. Precision Agriculture

Precision agriculture runs on data integrity. The technique leverages massive datasets to inform farming decisions, like harvesting schedules and water dispersal. Only 27% of U.S. agriculture uses precision practices despite the proof of how it delivers environmental benefits.

It’s one of the ways robots provide a comprehensive eco-friendly advantage to every branch of agricultural operations. Robotic sensors could spearhead data collection, capturing information to visualize the behaviors of these environmentally critical metrics:

• Moisture levels
• Crop conditions
• Soil acidity
• Carbon content
• Pesticide permeation

As robots understand more about the land, they encourage farmers to dedicate their efforts to the places where they’re needed most. If the irrigation system is distributing too much moisture and waterlogging crops, workers can focus efforts on refining these schedules instead of doing soil tests. How robots inform precision agriculture determines farmers' goal-setting behaviors.

2. Automated Weeding

While some weeds encourage visitors from pollinators, many get in the way of successful harvests. It is a laborious, time-consuming process that may unintentionally harm crops. Humans may bruise nearby fruit, while a robot is programmed to avoid these accidents, preventing harvest losses. Robots with cameras equipped with computer vision can accurately identify what weeds are and aren’t helpful. 

They do this automatically, removing them from a farmer’s land and to-do list. Robots execute this with lasers or mechanically, using their arms or blades to pick, trim and transport weeds into a more useful location, such as the compost bin. Robots can have programmed schedules to check for weeds regularly, eliminating the need for chemical herbicides on the property. 

Farmers immediately become more sustainable by reducing pollutants and better aligning with organic practices. They will also follow more of the guidelines the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends for sustainable agriculture, which include:

• Satisfies food and fiber needs
• Makes the environment's quality better
• Uses resources efficiently
• Makes farming economically viable
• Boosts the quality of life for farmers and societies

3. Soil Health Observations

Worldwide, farmlands are sapped of their nutrients to produce as many crops as possible to satisfy a hungry, growing population. The rate at which humans are stressing agricultural properties isn’t sustainable. With an agriculture robot’s help, farmers learn how their soil behaves and what it needs to stay nutritious and sturdy. Robots could make the land more sustainable by injecting nutrients into the soil and mapping the most distressed areas for observation.

4. Crop Monitoring

Robots and drones can capture video and images of crops to identify growth patterns unfurling and how produce reacts to various environmental stimuli. Farmers can get easy-to-interpret data about how different techniques work to reduce waste or pests. 

For example, staff wanting to experiment with no-tilling or agrivoltaics could do so by having robots measure the control and testing groups. Using comparative analysis, farmers can determine what’s best for their plants.

5. Irrigation Management

There are more types of agricultural robots than those surveying the grounds. Robotic irrigation systems are constantly aware of how much water plants need versus how much the business puts into the soil. They can also consider weather conditions, like upcoming rain forecasts and humidity levels, when determining how much water to send in the coming days. 

Irrigation accounts for a large portion of water consumption, and farmers should refine this as much as possible with robotic equipment. According to the United Nations World Water Development Report, agriculture uses 70% of the world’s freshwater, sapping 25% of groundwater reserves. Smart water conservation also reduces the chances of runoff, making the land stronger and more resilient to environmental stressors like wind and pests. 

6. Cover Crop Assistance

Robots can be trained to know the best plants to grow to protect specific varieties, making them the ideal cover cropping complement. They can distribute seeds to ensure they grow in time to cover the farm’s main crops and invite more helpful biodiversity to the area by increasing plant variety. Cover crops also reduce erosion with their roots, holding nutrients and plant foundations in place to increase stability and heartiness. 

7. Waste Minimization

Robots eliminate numerous questions from manual farm management, such as wondering if a plant needs more pesticides to resist an incoming threat or if the hydroponic grow lights require more power. Every corner of a farming operation has the potential to reduce the amount of waste it produces, whether organic debris that could turn into bioenergy or water that could go to the ranch animals instead. 

8. Pollination Supplementing

Pollinator populations are dwindling everywhere because of anthropogenetic climate change and overall neglect of native species. Robots could make habitats more sustainable by simulating the impacts of pollinators until they are restored in their regions. 

Robotic pollinators, where some models even resemble bees, promote healthy growth cycles despite pollination scarcity. They also help farms that have apiaries. Recent research proves how valuable smart hives with robot bees can be. Over 400 colonies in 13 countries were analyzed, and they could communicate with bees with mechanical movements. Robots could be the reason biodiversity comes back to the region around the farm, restoring natural ecosystems to their former glory.

The Types of Agricultural Robots With the Biggest Impact

Farmers who have operated with the same routines for decades may feel skeptical about incorporating robotics. However, the current climate situation calls for swift action, and robots could lead to immediate advantages for healing the earth. 

Workers can pick and choose what feels more applicable to their needs, experimenting with what they have to offer until they become more familiar. Eventually, global farmlands will have robotic assistance driving down emissions while boosting yields for upcoming generations.