157 | FUNDAMENTALS IN AGRICULTURE AND FOOD
INTRODUCTION
Over the years, agricultural productivity has increased significantly due
to intensification, mechanization and automation.
This has led to the
development of automated agricultural equipment for field operations, animal
husbandry systems, and cropping systems such as greenhouse climate control
and irrigation systems. The implementation of mechanization in farming has
not just decreased the expenses of production and alleviated the physical strain
of human work, but has also enhanced the caliber of newly harvested crops and
ecological management.
On the contrary, while various automation systems utilized in industry
are designed for basic and repetitive tasks, the implementation of automation
in agriculture demands sophisticated technologies
capable of managing
intricate and greatly diverse environmental factors and produce. The farming
environment is intricate and lacks a strict structure, exhibiting substantial
differences not only between fields but also within the same field. This
complexity, coupled with environmental
and genetic factors, results in a
significant degree of variation in agricultural products. To meet the challenges
of automation in agriculture, fundamental technologies need to be developed to
meet the ever-changing conditions, variability
of products and environment,
sensitive products, and adverse environmental conditions.
Dynamic real-time interpretation of the environment and objects
necessitates the utilization of intelligent control systems.
The precision
requirements for automation systems in agriculture can be lower than in
industry because the cost of agricultural products is relatively low, and the cost
of the automated system must also be low for it to be economically viable. In
addition, it is difficult to achieve as high a utilization rate in agriculture as in
the manufacturing industry because of seasonality.
Automation in agriculture has become an increasingly important part of
modern farming practices. From seeding and harvesting to irrigation and
fertilization, there are a variety of automated systems designed to help farmers
increase efficiency and productivity.
In this article, we will examine the
different types of automated systems used in agriculture and how they help
farmers achieve better results (Fouda, 2021).