Agricultural automation is the core technology for computer-aided agricultural production management and implementation. An integration of equipment, infotronics, and precision farming technologies, it creates viable solutions for challenges facing the food, fiber, feed, and fuel needs of the human race now and into the future. Agricultural Automat

Robotics has great potential in improving productivity and precision in agriculture. The book reviews advances in technologies such as machine vision and control systems, as well as applications from crop planting, fertilisation, pest and weed management to livestock production.

Agricultural Mechanization and Automation is a component of Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The mechanization of farming practices throughout the world has revolutionized food production, enabling it to maintain pace with population growth except in some less-developed countries, most notably in Africa. Agricultural mechanization has involved the partial or full replacement of human energy and animal-powered equipment (e.g. plows, seeders and harvesters) by engine-driven equipment. The theme on Agricultural Mechanization and Automation cover six main topics: Technology and Power in Agriculture; Farm Machinery; Facilities and Equipment for Livestock Management; Environmental Monitoring; Recovery and Use of Wastes and by-Products; Slaughtering and Processing of Livestock, which are then expanded into multiple subtopics, each as a chapter. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

This book addresses the challenges for developing and emerging trends in Internet-of-Things (IoT) for smart agriculture platforms. It also describes data analytics & machine learning, cloud architecture, automation & robotics and aims to overcome existing barriers for smart agriculture with commercial viability. It discusses IoT-based monitoring systems for analyzing the crop environment, and methods for improving the efficiency of decision-making based on the analysis of harvest statistics. The book explores a range of applications including intelligent field monitoring, intelligent data processing and sensor technologies, predictive analysis systems, crop monitoring, and weather data-enabled analysis in IoT agro-systems. This volume will be helpful for engineering and technology experts and researchers, as well as for policy-makers.

According to Prof. D. Despommier, by the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Furthermore, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. New land will be needed to grow enough food to feed them. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster? One possible solution is indoor farming. However, not all crops can easily be moved in an indoor environment. Nevertheless, to secure the food supply, it is necessary to increase the automation level in agriculture significantly. This book intends to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and automation examples in agriculture.

Over the past century, mechanization has been an important means for optimizing resource utilization, improving worker health and safety and reducing labor requirements in farming while increasing productivity and quality of 4F (Food, Fuel, Fiber, Feed). Recognizing this contribution, agricultural mechanization was considered as one of the top ten engineering achievements of 20th century by the National Academy of Engineering. Accordingly farming communities have adopted increasing level of automation and robotics to further improve the precision management of crops (including input resources), increase productivity and reduce farm labor beyond what has been possible with conventional mechanization technologies. It is more important than ever to continue to develop and adopt novel automation and robotic solutions into farming so that some of the most complex agricultural tasks, which require huge amount of seasonal labor such as fruit and vegetable harvesting, could be automated while meeting the rapidly increasing need for 4F. In addition, continual innovation in and adoption of agricultural automation and robotic technologies is essential to minimize the use of depleting resources including water, minerals and other chemicals so that sufficient amount of safe and healthy food can be produced for current generation while not compromising the potential for the future generation. This book aims at presenting the fundamental principles of various aspects of automation and robotics as they relate to production agriculture (the branch of agriculture dealing with farming operations from field preparation to seeding, to harvesting and field logistics). The building blocks of agricultural automation and robotics that are discussed in the book include sensing and machine vision, control, guidance, manipulation and end-effector technologies. The fundamentals and operating principles of these technologies are explained with examples from cutting-edge research and development currently going on around the word. This book brings together scientists, engineers, students and professionals working in these and related technologies to present their latest examples of agricultural automation and robotics research, innovation and development while explaining the fundamentals of the technology. The book, therefore, benefits those who wish to develop novel agricultural engineering solutions and/or to adopt them in the future. .

Digital agriculture is an emerging concept of modern farming that refers to managing farms using modern Engineering, Information and Communication Technologies (EICT) aiming at increasing the overall efficiency of agricultural production, improving the quantity and quality of products, and optimizing the human labor required and natural resource consumption in operations. This encyclopedia is designed to collect the summaries of knowledge on as many as subjects or aspects relevant to ECIT for digital agriculture, present such knowledge in entries, and arrange them alphabetically by articles titles. Springer Major Reference Works platform offers Live Update capability. Our reference work takes full advantage of this feature, which allows for continuous improvement or revision of published content electronically. The Editorial Board Dr. Irwin R. Donis-Gonzalez, University of California Davis, Dept. Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Davis, USA (Section: Postharvest Technologies) Prof. Paul Heinemann, Pennsylvania State University, Department Head of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, PA, USA (Section: Technologies for Crop Production) Prof. Manoj Karkee, Washington State University, Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems, Washington, USA (Section: Robotics and Automation Technologies) Prof. Minzan Li, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China (Section: Precision Agricultural Technologies) Prof. Dikai Liu, University of Technology Sydney (UTS),Faculty of Engineering & Information Technologies, Broadway NSW, Australia (Section: AI, Information and Communication Technologies) Prof. Tomas Norton, University of Leuven, Dept. of Biosystems, Heverlee Leuven, Belgium (Section: Technologies for Animal and Aquatic Production) Dr. Manuela Zude-Sasse, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Precision Horticulture, Potsdam, Germany (Section: Engineering and Mechanization Technologies)