Precision Agriculture

This book provides a review of the state-of-the-art of agricultural robotics in different aspects of PA, the goals, and the gaps. The book introduces the area of Agricultural Robotics for Precision Agriculture (PA) specifically the conditions and limitations for implementing robots in this field and presents the concepts, principles, required abilities, components, characteristics and performance measures, conditions, and rules for robots in PA.

The world population is increasing while arable land is decreasing at an alarming rate. About one-quarter of arable land is degraded and needs significant restoration before it can sustain crops again. By 2030, the water supply will fall 40% short of meeting global demand. Moreover, looming climate change poses additional challenge to increasing food production to feed 10 billion people by 2050. Current major agricultural systems are on a largely unsustainable trajectory because of their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and biodiversity loss.