To solve the problem of "sweat dripping on the ground", we need this kind of robot

Recently, in a test field in the suburbs of Shanghai, a group of new farmers attracted everyone's attention. The leader is Wang Jinyue, who has been engaged in the research and development of robots for seven years , from a high-paid white-collar worker to an entrepreneurial farmer. In order to make agricultural production more intelligent, he dreams of allowing people to do farm work with air conditioning. However, agricultural robots are not widely used in China. Can these agricultural robots that have entered everyone's field of vision help farmers?

What are agricultural robots?

Agricultural robots usually refer to robots that can perform various agricultural operations, including planting, weeding, harvesting, and handling. Agricultural robots can reduce labor costs, improve the competitiveness of agricultural production, and reduce waste and losses through precise control and management, thereby improving the production efficiency and quality of agricultural products and contributing to global food safety and sustainable development.

The most widely used agricultural robot is the planting robot, which uses robots and artificial intelligence technology to complete the planting and management of plants. It can work at any time and in any weather conditions, thereby improving the efficiency and quality of planting.

How to use agricultural robots

At the Diantian Agricultural Cooperative in Shanghai, various robots are working in a one-stop service, taking care of the 200-mu vegetable fields, orchards and greenhouses. There are nearly 30 robots neatly arranged on both sides of a parking garage connecting two greenhouses, covering every link from land preparation to harvesting.

According to Wang Jinyue, chairman of the cooperative, some of these robots have been upgraded, and the bed-making seeder has been updated to the fifth generation, which can automatically move in all directions according to the on-site conditions. Compared with manual operations, robot operations are not only fast and accurate, but also tireless.

Wang Jinyue gave an example, saying that a weeding robot can work for eight hours after charging for one hour. Among them, a small weeding robot can weed nearly 20 acres a day, while a large weeding robot can weed up to 500 acres a day. Due to the improved operating efficiency, the number of staff in a 200-acre plantation can be reduced from 30 to 40 to one or two people.

Since the robot's operating environment temperature can be as high as 90°C, even in the hot summer, operators generally do not have to worry about the robot not being able to operate normally in the greenhouse. Not only that, even if the operator is far away from the plantation, he can remotely command the robot to work in the field, and he can farm in an air-conditioned room, freeing farmers from heavy agricultural labor.

How do agricultural robots complete their tasks?

To realize that robots can replace humans in farming, they need to be able to walk autonomously, identify crops, and perform farming operations accurately. To accomplish these tasks, the most important thing is the design of the robot's navigation system, vision system, and mechanical system.

The navigation system of indoor robots currently usually uses visual navigation, inertial navigation and laser radar navigation. Generally speaking, the visual navigation system is relatively low-cost, but it requires a lot of data training to make autonomous walking smarter; although the cost of laser radar navigation is high, it is currently a relatively stable and safe choice, and it is also the first choice for mainstream robot products.

In addition to the navigation system, the visual system also helps the robot identify the surrounding environment and determine whether the robot's actions are executed properly. The visual system here is different from the visual navigation of the navigation system. The vision of the navigation system is mainly used to identify landmarks and measure depth, while the robot's visual system can help the robot find the target accurately. For example, for a picking robot, the position of the fruit is irregular, so the robot's visual system needs to provide data for the robot to determine how to pick it.

Market prospects of agricultural robots

The market prospects of agricultural robots in China are very broad. With the continuous advancement of China's agricultural modernization and the increase in population, the demand for agricultural products such as grain and vegetables is also growing. However, China's agricultural production has always faced problems such as labor shortage and land resource shortage. The emergence of agricultural robots can improve agricultural production efficiency and reduce the burden of manpower to meet the growing demand for food.

At present, the government has begun to increase its support for agricultural robots and promote the research and development and application of related technologies. It is predicted that in the next few years, the scale of China's agricultural robot market will continue to grow rapidly. According to relevant market research reports, by 2025, the scale of China's agricultural robot market will reach 4.622 billion US dollars, with an annual compound growth rate of 27.1%. In the future, agricultural robots will usher in a round of explosive growth.