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ASI's Forge rolls through a vineyard in CaliforniaASI’s Forge robotic platform rolls through a vineyard in California. Forge’s narrow build and powerful pulling capacity make it an ideal technology of the future for specialty crops applications.
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Over the past several months, we’ve had a variety of discussions and site visits with farming groups. From these conversations, we’ve identified several key challenges that most growers now face.

ASI is working to redefine the term “precision agriculture”

Some of these challenges are more geographical, like the severe drought conditions in the Central Valley of California; and some challenges are felt by all, like labor shortages and lower crop margins. Bottom line, the future of agriculture is changing and will continue to change over the next two decades.
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Where are we right now?

As growers face the challenges of modern farming, they are turning to technology as a remedy. We saw a variety of new products and features at the World Ag Expo 2014 in February 2014, demonstrating how companies are focusing on advancing existing technologies like “precision farming.” Recent political priorities have caused many government opportunities to dry up for US military contractors, causing them to look for other applications for their products.

In just the past two years, we’ve seen a substantial increase in the use of aerial drones in farming.
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On the ground vehicle side, ASI is working to redefine the term “precision agriculture” through multiple, coordinated robotic vehicles. Farming vehicles coordinate with one another to most efficiently cover fields and prevent collisions with obstacles or other vehicles. OEMs, large farming corporations, and specialty crop growers are interested in vehicle automation technologies to help perform monotonous but critical tasks like spraying, plowing, and mowing.

The Future of Farming

While we don’t have a crystal ball to tell what’s going to happen in the future, we do have more than 13 years of experience in farming vehicle robotics that gives us boots-on-the-ground insight into where technology trends are going.
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Volatile weather and warming or cooling trends seem to be hitting all over the world and can affect harvest yields or populations of invasive plant and pest species. As robotics and sensors become more affordable in the coming years, growers will likely lean even more on technology to help them overcome new problems.

For example, some innovative research groups—like Utah State University’s AggieAir—are working with aerial photography and sensors to capture data about trends such as missing nutrients and invasive plant species encroaching on crops.
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It’s not a stretch to imagine a farming operation where the data collected by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) prioritizes and directs the task list of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) fleet. As UAVs and UGVs work together, they provide targeted herbicide, fertilizer, and water applications that help crops grow more efficiently.

Artificial intelligence systems involving robotic farming vehicles is also on the horizon. In the situation described above, UAVs and UGVs collaborate but may still require some human interaction to make the complex decisions that robots are not capable of.
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Artificial intelligence technology may exist in the future that allow a fleet of robots to make decisions, adaptations, and even “learn” based on the data they receive. This type of system would allow farmers to significantly scale up their operations while maintaining their same labor force.

Despite the future possibilities of technology, there will probably never be a time when humans do not have a significant role to play in farming. Robots may make us more efficient and productive or may alter our traditional role, but no technology can replace the ingenuity and intuition of humans in the future of farming.
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