Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Systems in Agriculture and Farming

Dear Colleagues,

In the past few decades, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has enjoyed great popularity in various fields. Within the agricultural field, the introduction of AI has led to significant improvements in agricultural technology and provided some possible solutions for contemporary problems.  The world of agriculture has undergone a profound transformation, and has shifted from conventional agricultural practices to precision agriculture and smart farming techniques.

AI has made major contributions to the latest smart farming technologies and applications, which improve production efficiency and profitability. Smart agricultural research driven by AI is helpful in solving the problems of water scarcity, food security, and climate change, which reduce the sustainable growth of agricultural products. It also makes significant sense to facilitate the pursuit of realizing green agriculture for sustainable development. This, for example, improves the ability to monitor crops and control irrigation, fertilization, and treatments, as well as improving their precision. It also enables the optimization of the use of resources and land, and maximizes the health and yield of crops. Nowadays, almost all kinds of agricultural practices, including intelligent irrigation systems, soil mapping, insect/pest management, weed management, yield estimation and prediction, and so on, are heavily reliant on AI-based techniques.

Moreover, agricultural robotics has advanced significantly in recent years and is the core on which Agriculture 5.0 is based, together with AI. There was a huge expansion of half- and fully autonomous cropping and harvesting robotics systems, as well as drones, and these are becoming more popular in precision agriculture. It has enabled better crop management and resource optimization.

This Special Issue aims to provide an overview of the subject and to showcase potential uses of artificial intelligence and robotics systems to transform agriculture and farming. Both original articles and reviews covering intelligent techniques and applications in agriculture development are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Martínez Béjar
Prof. Dr. Alessandro Gasparetto
Guest Editors

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• AI-based agriculture
• smart farming
• precision agriculture
• AI and robotics in sustainable agriculture and farming
• agricultural robotics
• automation equipment
• ethics and social dimension of AI and robotics applications in agriculture and farming