This article presents the design aspects and development processes to transform a general‐purpose mobile robotic platform into a semi‐autonomous agricultural robot sprayer focusing on user interfaces for teleoperation. The hardware and the software modules that must be installed onto the system are described, with particular emphasis on human–robot interaction. Details of the technology are given focusing on the user interface aspects. Two laboratory experiments and two studies in the field to evaluate the usability of the user interface provide evidence for the increased usability of a prototype robotic system. Specifically, the study aimed to empirically evaluate the type of target selection input device mouse and digital pen outperformed Wiimote in terms of usability. A field experiment evaluated the effect of three design factors: (a) type of screen output, (b) number of views, (c) type of robot control input device. Results showed that participants were significantly more effective but less efficient when they had multiple views, than when they had a single view. PC keyboard was also found to significantly outperform PS3 gamepad in terms of interaction efficiency and perceived usability. Heuristic evaluations of different user interfaces were also performed using research‐based HRI heuristics. Finally, a study on participants’ overall user experience found that the system was evaluated positively on the User Experience Questionnaire scales.

Smart farming based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies enables crop farmers to collect real-time data related to irrigation and plant protection processes, aiming to increase production volume, improve product quality, and predict diseases, while optimizing resources and farming processes. IoT devices can collect vast amounts of environmental, soil, and crop performance data, thus building time series data that can be analyzed to forecast and compute recommendations and deliver critical information to farmers in real time. In this sense, the added-value from the farmers’ perspective is that such smart farming techniques have the potential to deliver a more sustainable agricultural production, based on a more precise and resource-efficient approach in the complex and versatile agricultural environment. The aim of this study is to investigate possible advantages of applying the Smart Farming as a Service (SFaaS) paradigm, aiming to support small-scale farmers, by taking over the technological investment burden and offering next generation farming advice through the combined utilization of heterogeneous information sources. The overall results of the pilot application demonstrate a potential reduction of up to 22% on total irrigation needs and important optimization opportunities on pesticides use efficiency. The current work offers opportunities for innovation targeting and climate change adaptation options (new agricultural technologies), and could help farmers to reduce their ecological footprint.

No abstract

No abstract

Agricultural robots can tackle harsh working conditions and hardness of work, as well as the shortage of laborers that is a bottleneck to agricultural production. Such robots exist, but they are not yet widespread. We believe that the limited usage of robotics in agriculture could be related to the fact that the mainstream direction for robotics in agriculture is full automation. The teleoperation of an agricultural robotic system can enable improved performance overcoming the complexity that current autonomous robots face due to the dynamic and unstructured agricultural environment. A field study was conducted to evaluate eight different user interfaces aiming to determine the factors that should be taken into consideration by designers while developing user interfaces for robot teleoperation in agriculture. Thirty participants, including farmers and agricultural engineers, were asked to use different teleoperation interaction modes in order to navigate the robot along vineyard rows and spray grape clusters. Based on our findings, additional views for target identification and peripheral vision improved both robot navigation (fewer collisions) and target identification (sprayed grape clusters). In this paper, we discuss aspects of user interface design related to remote operation of an agricultural robot.

No abstract

No abstract

Climate-smart agriculture is an approach for developing agricultural strategies to modernize agricultural systems using digital techniques, aiming for sustainable agriculture and ensuring food security under climate change. This article provides a systematic literature review of smart agriculture technologies towards climate-smart agriculture in Cyprus, including robotics, Internet of Things, and remote sensing. The paper starts with a review of climate-smart agriculture, presenting its importance in terms of optimizing agricultural production processes in order to address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change. An extensive literature review of works published in the areas of robotics, Internet of Things, and remote sensing is undertaken, with particular attention paid to works carried out in relation to agriculture in Cyprus. The paper analyzes aspects of the climate-smart agriculture research situation in Cypriot agriculture, identifies gaps, and concludes with new directions.