German Farmers’ Attitudes on Adopting Autonomous Field Robots: An Empirical Survey

Abstract

Agricultural production methods in Europe are increasingly subject to public criticism from which many farmers suffer. This applies, among other areas, to the widespread use of pesticides. Autonomous field robots (AFR), as the next stage of agricultural automation, have the potential to farm more intensively and, at the same time, in a more environmentally friendly way. However, a certain skepticism towards autonomous systems is suspected among farmers. Whether farmers adopt a technology depends largely on their uncertainty about the consequences of its use and the resulting attitude on the adoption. In order to quantify the attitude on adopting AFR in Germany and to identify possible group differences within the population, 490 German farmers were surveyed using an online questionnaire, which is based on an extended version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). In the subsequent cluster analysis, the statements inquiring the intention to use AFR served as cluster-forming variables. As a result, three groups (“openminded AFR supporters”, “convinced AFR adopters”, “reserved AFR interested”) could be identified according to their response behavior. Despite existing group differences, an overall attitude in favor of autonomous field robots was observed. The results complement the existing research with a further empirical study and provide interesting starting points for further analysis, field robot manufacturers, and political decision makers.

Trust and beliefs about robots in Latin America

“…Data from the 2018 Latinobarómetro survey reveals that public opinion in Latin America is not generally supportive of robots. This result runs in direct contrast to other studies that find favorable attitudes toward robots in other regions of the world (Rübcke von Veltheim and Heise, 2021, p. 1). Our goal was to identify factors associated with favorable (or less negative) views of robots in the region [22].…”

“…, 2014) and the effect of religion (MacDorman et al ., 2009). More recent studies are focused on attitudes toward robots in agriculture (Rübcke von Veltheim and Heise, 2021) and social services (Carradore, 2021). Also, a recent innovative study by Spatola and Wudarczyk (2021) uses semantic priming to evaluate attitudes toward robots.…”

“…22. Rübcke von Veltheim and Heise (2021, p. 1) study robots in agriculture in Germany and find “an overall attitude in favor of autonomous field robots…”…”

Farmers’ acceptance of robotics and unmanned aerial vehicles: A systematic review

“…(2021) showed that none of the surveyed German farmers had invested in field crop robots, while around 22% had the intention to invest within the coming years. Furthermore, von Veltheim and Heise (2021) concluded that the surveyed German farmers tended to have a neutral to positive view on adopting field crop robots, aligned with von Veltheim et al. (2021), who also found that the surveyed German farmers were positive about introducing autonomous field robots on their farms.…”

Social and ethical considerations for agricultural robotics

“…These approaches lack the principles of substantive inclusion identified above (Rose and Bhattacharya, 2023). Examples of participation and inclusion in the technical dimensions of agricultural robotic development have thus far employed a range of tools, including the use of augmented reality (Huuskonen & Oksanen, 2019), on-farm trials (Adamides et al, 2017) and simulation events (see Riek, 2012 for methods), farmer surveys (Rose and Bhattacharya, 2023;Tamirat et al, 2023;von Veltheim and Heise, 2021;von Veltheim et al, 2022), public surveys (Pfeiffer et al, 2021;Spykman et al, 2022) and farmer interviews (Redhead et al, 2015). A recent study in four European countries by Tamirat et al (2023) went further than including only farmers, and instead interviewed robotic companies, academics, project managers, public authorities, and environmental conservation societies.…”