Techno-economic analysis of future precision field robots
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Since 1905, the Department of Agricultural Engineering, now the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE), has been a leader in providing engineering solutions to agricultural problems in the United States and the world. The department’s original mission was to mechanize agriculture. That mission has evolved to encompass a global view of the entire food production system–the wise management of natural resources in the production, processing, storage, handling, and use of food fiber and other biological products.
History
In 1905 Agricultural Engineering was recognized as a subdivision of the Department of Agronomy, and in 1907 it was recognized as a unique department. It was renamed the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering in 1990. The department merged with the Department of Industrial Education and Technology in 2004.
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1905–present
Historical Names
- Department of Agricultural Engineering (1907–1990)
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- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (parent college)
- College of Engineering (parent college)
- Department of Industrial Education and Technology, (merged, 2004)
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Abstract
Precision agriculture (PA) technology provides a means to increase equipment productivity and field efficiency, and input efficiency; however, the potential of PA technologies to enable smaller, autonomous machines has yet not been realized in the market place. In developed countries, the size of tractors and implements continue to increase. Such trend cannot continue indefinitely because of size, technical and cost constraints. A long operating life for agricultural equipment enables a greater benefit relative to the high initial cost and investment. However, long equipment life can lead to technologically obsolete machines with potential incompatibility and sub-optimality, since machinery and PA technology should evolve together and be used as a package. Similarly, power system technologies with potential application in agricultural machines are also evolving quickly and issues of renewability and sustainability are becoming common priorities, with demands for standardization and certification. The concept of small modular and scalable intelligent machines tries to address the challenge of gaining higher productivity with reduced costs and power. In particular, in this paper different weeding technologies were compared using performance metrics including work rate and energy density. Conventional processes, using common tractors were compared with robotic weeder designs to evaluate performance, size and energy requirements. Forecasts of possible future trends of agricultural machine size, PA technology integration and power system technology deployment were derived from this work.