A Perspective from the OEM Industry
Leaving behind the initial peak of inflated expectations while following the well-known Gartner hype cycle into its corresponding disillusionment phase in the last decade(s), we now see many agricultural robots and autonomous equipment steadily approaching reality. In 2020, Future Farming magazine published its first field and harvest robot buyers’ guide. The catalog lists the autonomous robots – not autonomous tractors – that farmers worldwide can buy, lease, or rent to help them produce crops outdoors. For the 2023 guide, the magazine reports 60 listed robots and 73% more robots in operation worldwide, showing significant growth in quantities across all categories of agricultural robots. Compared to the first year of publication, the last three years have seen the number of operational robots grow by nearly tenfold. This trend is pushed by the fast development of technology, first introduced by startup companies, bringing competitive and affordable state-of-the-art technologies to farmers utilizing smart sensors, advanced software and AI algorithms, increased processing power, and smart actuators. Secondly, the agricultural robot trend is pushed by the global and pressing challenges we see today in agricultural production, like human labor availability and costs, aging farmers, climate change, legislations and restrictions, and many more.