Farm Robots
This type of tractor uses GPS and sensors to navigate fields with little to no steering from a human.
What is an autonomous tractor?
Often equipped with multispectral cameras, these unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, scout fields from just a few hundred feet up.
What are drones?
Inserted directly into the dirt, this tool prevents overwatering by measuring the volumetric water content of the earth.
What is a soil moisture sensor?
Electronic tags using this 4-letter radio-frequency technology allow ranchers to automatically identify and track individual livestock.
What is RFID?
From the Latin for 'water work,' this soil-free farming method delivers nutrients directly to plant roots via a liquid solution.
What is hydroponics?
These automated systems allow dairy cows to voluntarily enter a stall to be milked without human intervention.
What are robotic milking systems?
This 2-word process uses aerial imagery to create digital maps showing field boundaries and variations in crop health.
What is field mapping?
Abbreviated VRT, this technology dynamically changes the amount of fertilizer applied as a tractor drives across a field.
What is Variable-Rate Technology?
The livestock equivalent of a Fitbit, these wearable collars or ear tags track a cow's steps, resting time, and rumination.
What is an activity tracker?
To save space in urban environments, this method grows crops in stacked layers under strictly controlled LED lighting.
What is vertical farming?
Equipped with cameras, these smart field robots can identify unwanted plants and mechanically remove them or precisely apply herbicide.
What is a robotic weeder?
Satellites use this 'distant' method to detect crop stress and water problems by measuring reflected light invisible to the human eye.
What is remote sensing?
Equipped with automated hydraulic augers, these self-driving rovers dig to exact depths to collect soil cores for nutrient mapping.
What are soil sampling robots?
These automated barn systems dispense exact, customized feed rations to specific animals based on their electronic ID tags.
What are automated feeding systems?
This 2-word branch of artificial intelligence allows smart tractors to "learn" to tell the difference between a crop and a weed.
What is machine learning?
Because they require an incredibly delicate touch, strawberries and apples are among the hardest targets for these agricultural machines.
What are fruit-picking robots?
No longer just for photos, agricultural drones can carry substantial liquid payloads to perform this field task from the air.
What is aerial spraying?
This overarching, 2-word farming philosophy uses GPS, data, and targeted inputs to grow 'more with less'.
What is precision agriculture?
Using overhead cameras, this specific AI branch watches cattle movement to instantly flag a limp or behavioral change.
What is computer vision?
The future of crop resilience relies heavily on this molecular biology technique used to precisely alter an organism's DNA.
What is gene editing?
Acting as robotic pack mules, these autonomous ground vehicles follow human pickers through rows to carry heavy crates of produce.
What are autonomous cargo carts?
In forestry and cover-cropping, specialized drones can fire capsule-like pods into the ground to accomplish this task rapidly.
What is planting?
Software uses this "analytical" process to crunch years of historical weather and yield data to help predict next season's conditions and yields.
What is data analytics?
To keep dairy barns clean and ration lines accessible 24/7, farmers utilize these autonomous, Roomba-like robots to continuously clean alleys and push feed.
What are barn robots?
This "sunny" future concept, blending agriculture and solar power, involves installing solar panels over fields to generate electricity while agricultural production continues below.
What is agrivoltaics (or dual-use farming)?