Robots in Agriculture and Farming

With labour shortages and increasing costs severely affecting the productivity of agricultural processes, farmers are increasingly adopting agricultural robots to meet demand, avoid waste, and keep supermarket shelves fully stocked with fresh produce. 

Agricultural robots range from simple pick-and-pack robots, through to hi-tech automatons that can be programmed to monitor crops and carry out complex farming tasks. 

As technology develops, agricultural robots are becoming increasingly specialised and the future of farming is set to feature ever-increasing automation. In this article, we explore how robots are currently used in agriculture and farming, and what the exciting future of agricultural robots could look like. 

What Are Agricultural Robots?

Agricultural robots are automated machines or robotic systems that have the capacity to perform tasks on farms or in agricultural environments. They vary in design and can be programmed to perform specific tasks or, increasingly, are designed to be responsive to and react to the unique environment around them.

Traditionally, robots  have been used by farmers to conduct monotonous tasks, including picking and packing fruits and vegetables, or planting seeds. These are jobs that are increasingly difficult to find human workers for, due to the repetitive, strenuous nature of the work and low wages.

There are a number of advantages to be gained from utilising robots in agriculture. They provide a cost-effective way for farmers to keep up with the soaring demand for low-cost production.

Robots are becoming more and more technologically advanced, and they are able to carry out increasingly complex tasks that in the past would have been performed by farmworkers. Robots are able to monitor crops, measure PH levels and minerals in the soil, and much more.

What Robots Are Used in Agriculture?

There is a wide range of different robots that are commonly used in agriculture. The most popular robots are designed for harvesting, and are often intended to pick fruit or vegetables in the fields or in greenhouses, or are designed to pack produce in warehouses.

These automated harvesting robots are commonly based on classic robotic designs and will be designed with versatile robot arms and other practical robotic applications. Other agricultural robots may be more complex, with built-in sensors and AI that allows the robot to adapt to its surroundings.

There are other types of automation that could be considered robotic, other than the classic harvesting and pick-and-pack robots. This includes technology-driven equipment such as driverless tractors, which can be programmed to follow set routes in fields and to react to obstacles or adapt to the conditions around them.

Other interesting technology includes the use of drones, which can be used to provide surveillance and monitoring and be programmed to seed large areas of farmland from the air.

The most popular types of agricultural robots currently in use include:

●     Harvesting robots

●     Seeding robots

●     Picking and packing robots

●     Palletising robots

●     Spraying robots

●     Monitoring and surveillance robots

●     Livestock robots

How Are Robots Used in Agriculture?

Agricultural robots have an impressive number of uses on farms. They are particularly popular on large, industrialised farms where they can maintain large areas of farmland or process industrial quantities of crops.

The range of tasks that agricultural robots can be used for is staggering. As technology and programming develop, these tasks only increase in number. Robots are commonly used to harvest crops, plant seeds and provide irrigation, for example.

Almost any task that requires manual, repetitive labour can be completed by an agricultural robot, while increasingly specialised and complicated tasks are also being completed by robots. Robots are most commonly used to harvest fruits and vegetables, but they are also used on livestock farms, to shear sheep or milk cows.

Examples of the agricultural work that robots currently perform include:

●     Crop seeding

●     Crop harvesting

●     Packing produce

●     Palletising produce

●     Crop maintenance 

●     Livestock applications

Let’s take a closer look at these in more detail.

Crop Seeding

Industrial-sized farms have hundreds, sometimes thousands of acres of fields to seed throughout the year, a task that takes time and requires repetitive labour.

Often crops are sown using machinery, although this commonly requires a driver to operate and oversee the process. Automation is changing this, and robots and driverless tractors now provide farmers with a way to seed fields quickly, efficiently and accurately, with little need for human interference.

Crop Harvesting

Crop harvesting is the primary function of agricultural robots that are currently utilised on farms.

Crop harvesting traditionally relies on a large and often seasonal workforce. Despite requiring exceptional levels of skill and experience, it remains low paid, hard work and undesirable, with farmers struggling to fill roles when they need crops picked, particularly at short notice.

This is where automation is so important because agricultural robots have the capacity to ensure that crops don’t rot in the fields and that farmers can pick produce when needed.

A common example of an agricultural robot used in a crop harvesting capacity includes automated picking arms that can be programmed to pick the fruit when the fruit has ripened. Advanced sensors allow the robots to distinguish between ripe and unripe fruit, and to even remove mouldy fruits from the plants.

Packing Produce

Traditionally, human workers are required to process and pack fruits and vegetables once they’ve been harvested from the fields.

This is another repetitive agricultural task, but it’s an essential step in getting food from the field into supermarkets. It’s also a task that requires a surprising amount of skill and experience and, depending on the fruit or vegetable, dexterity too.

The job of a packer varies from one type of product to the next. For example, potatoes may be sorted into hessian sacks while strawberries need to be delicately placed into individual punnets. Parts of this process may already be automated through the use of conveyor belts, where it’s also possible to employ robotic arms to undertake picking and packing tasks.

Responsive robotic arms can be programmed to sort high-quality produce from bad, and sensor technology allows them to be used for quality control. For example, a robotic arm may be able to remove mouldy or damaged vegetables that have been accidentally picked, ensuring they don’t make it to supermarket shelves.

Palletising Products

After farm produce has been picked and packed, it will often need to be palletised before it can be shipped off to its next destination.

This is a job that can be performed using a forklift and trained forklift operator, however, it’s also a task that can be easily automated using specialised palletising robots or adapted robotic arms.

In this respect, automation ensures that palletising is carried out quickly and effectively, meaning more products can be readied for shipment in a shorter period of time. This avoids any waste, once production has been picked out of the ground. Importantly, robotic palletisers also help to create safer work environments on farms and can reduce injuries from workplace accidents or repetitive strain.

Crop Maintenance

Robotic arms are incredibly versatile, and they can be programmed to undertake a wide range of maintenance tasks in addition to picking and packing.

This includes pruning plants to ensure the fruit can grow and weeding areas of farmland. Other agricultural robots are designed to spray insecticides or to spray water and nutrients and provide irrigation.

Agricultural robots are also being used to monitor PH or nutrient levels in soil, and to monitor crops and farms in general.

Livestock Applications

Agricultural robots can be employed on livestock farms, as well as crop farms. In the same manner, they are commonly used to undertake repetitive tasks and to improve safety and efficiency.

Examples of livestock applications include using automation to milk cows, to spread feed or to monitor large areas of farmland where animals are grazing.

Advantages of Agricultural Robots

Agricultural robots provide farmers with a number of different advantages, particularly in a world where demand for products is high, profit margins are slim, and human agricultural workers are becoming increasingly rare.

Agricultural robots, including harvesting, pruning or packing robots, are all intended to perform manual tasks that human labour would find repetitive. This is one of the biggest advantages of automation, as robots can work faster than humans, without the need for breaks and without suffering from repetitive strain injuries or fatigue.

Because of the difficult nature of farm work, farmers commonly have difficulty filling manual jobs, particularly seasonal fruit picking work. Automation ensures that crops can be picked on time, and means that farmers no longer face difficulties finding workers.

All of this means that farmers can efficiently harvest crops or tend to livestock, avoiding waste and ensuring that prices for the consumer still remain low. Most importantly, automation means that in an ever-changing agricultural landscape, farmers have the capacity to keep our supermarket shelves fully stocked.

The most important advantages to be gained from utilising agricultural robots include:

Improved efficiency: Agricultural robots are designed to improve the efficiency of farms, and they have the capacity to help farmers harvest crops rapidly and process crops quickly for distribution. Robots can run without pause and with no need for breaks, and they have the ability to carry out tasks at a much faster rate than a human worker could.

Avoiding waste: If farmers are unable to harvest or process their crops, those crops can rot in the ground or in warehouses. This can lead to vast quantities of unnecessary waste, and it’s a particularly prevalent problem in countries where farmers struggle to find seasonal workers. Robots can provide farmers with an essentially unlimited supply of labour, ensuring that crops can be picked when needed and won’t go to waste.

Accuracy and precision: Agricultural robots offer a level of accuracy and precision that humans often can’t match. They have the capacity to perform tasks such as separating bad crops from good crops and can provide accurate levels of crop or soil monitoring.

Cost-effectiveness: Robots can be set to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, ensuring that farmers can not only pick and process crops efficiently but that large farms can be run cost-effectively. This helps farmers to keep their running costs low, which in turn means that consumers can enjoy lower prices in the supermarkets.

Improved health and safety: Farm work is physically demanding, and workers can be injured on the job and be affected by long term issues, such as repetitive strain or back injuries. Robots can replace repetitive and strenuous farm jobs that often lead to such injuries, thereby leading to improved health and safety on farms.

Future of Robotics in Agriculture

The future of robotics in agriculture is certainly exciting, and new developments and technological advancements ensure that the complexity and intelligence of agricultural robots are improving year on year.

Agricultural robots will become more prevalent across the world, particularly as the accuracy of their work and their ability to learn become more astute. This doesn’t mean that human workers will lose out on jobs. Advanced economies already struggle to fill difficult farming roles, and farms will still need to employ highly skilled workers in maintenance, repair and supervisory roles.



Examples of potential future developments in agricultural robotics include the use of automated drone technology to plant crops over large areas of farmland, or drones that can seed clouds in order to provide rainfall during periods of drought.

Contact Cyber-Weld for More Information on Agricultural Robots

If you’re looking to automate your agricultural and farming processes, the expert team at Cyber-Weld is here to help. Our experienced engineers are experts in designing and building bespoke agricultural robots that are well suited to an impressive range of farming tasks.

We can provide a full-service robotic system, and tailormade to meet your agricultural needs. Our friendly staff will be there at every stage of the process, from the initial concept and planning stage, right through to after-sales and continued robot servicing and support. To find out more about our services contact the Cyber-Weld team today.