Bio-Inspired Robots and Structures toward Fostering the Modernization of Agriculture

Abstract

Biomimetics is the interdisciplinary cooperation of biology and technology that offers solutions to practical problems by analyzing biological systems and transferring their principles into applications. This review article focused on biomimetic innovations, including bio-inspired soft robots and swarm robots that could serve multiple functions, including the harvesting of fruits, pest control, and crop management. The research demonstrated commercially available biomimetic innovations, including robot bees by Arugga AI Farming and the Robotriks Traction Unit (RTU) precision farming equipment. Additionally, soft robotic systems have made it possible to mitigate the risk of surface bruises, rupture, the crushing destruction of plant tissue, and plastic deformation in the harvesting of fruits with a soft rind such as apples, cherries, pears, stone fruits, kiwifruit, mandarins, cucumbers, peaches, and pome. Even though the smart farming technologies, which were developed to mimic nature, could help prevent climate change and enhance the intensification of agriculture, there are concerns about long-term ecological impact, cost, and their inability to complement natural processes such as pollination. Despite the problems, the market for bio-inspired technologies with potential agricultural applications to modernize farming and solve the abovementioned challenges has increased exponentially. Future research and development should lead to low-cost FEA robotic grippers and FEA-tendon-driven grippers for crop harvesting. In brief, soft robots and swarm robotics have immense potential in agriculture.

Sensing in Soft Robotics

“…Additionally, the sensors can enhance a soft robot’s awareness of external stimuli such as temperature, pH, chemicals, pressure, light, and sound, which significantly widens the scope of the application of soft robots. With the help of sensors, soft robots can perform complex tasks in diverse fields such as healthcare , agriculture, , and warehouse management, among others. Integrating sensors into soft robots poses a challenge since the sensors must be capable of stretching, bending, and deforming along with the robot without hindering the free movement of the robot while preserving its softness during sensing.…”

Application of Bio and Nature-Inspired Algorithms in Agricultural Engineering

“…The information presented in this section focused on the application of bio and nature-inspired algorithms in agriculture. The algorithms are the engine that drives biomimetic innovations, such as soft robots for harvesting and swarms robotics for pollination and herd management [127]. The scope is justified by gaps and recent research on bio-inspired innovations in agriculture [127].…”

“…The algorithms are the engine that drives biomimetic innovations, such as soft robots for harvesting and swarms robotics for pollination and herd management [127]. The scope is justified by gaps and recent research on bio-inspired innovations in agriculture [127]. As noted in the introduction, BIAs were classified into four primary groups, namely ecological, swarm-intelligence-based, ecology-based, and multi-objective.…”

Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based End-to-End Control for UAV Dynamic Target Tracking

“…With the continuous improvement of its autonomous intelligence level, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is widely used in the civilian field such as aerial photography, agricultural detection [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ] and in the military field such as aerial reconnaissance, monitoring [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. As a hot and difficult issue, UAV dynamic target tracking technology needs to be solved urgently [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”