Responsible development of autonomous robotics in agriculture

Rose, David Christian; Lyon, Jessica; Boon, Auvikki de; Hanheide, Marc; Pearson, Simon

doi:10.1038/s43016-021-00287-9

Cited by 64 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…End-user feedback can also be methodologically mapped to some of the potential responsible innovation activities proposed by Eastwood et al (2019), such as assessing farmer perceptions of technology and seeking critical feedback from stakeholders. Concerns thus emerging can guide the anticipation of unintended risks, compatibility issues and socioethical implications to make the innovation process more reflexive and responsive (Eastwood et al, 2019;Rose, 2021a).…”

Section: Rri and End-user Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can end‐user feedback inform ‘Responsibilisation’ of India's policy landscape for agri‐digital transition?*

Kumar

Basu

2022

Sociologia Ruralis

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Agrarian transformations are imagined globally through digital agriculture. Most ambitious agrarian plans in India also identify the application of digital technologies to drive the next agro‐food revolution. However, the concerns around the ‘soft impacts’ of the agri‐digital transition, including socioethical concerns and farmers’ perceptions, have received relatively little attention among innovators and policymakers. Thus, through a combination of qualitative content analysis and topic modelling, this article studies end‐user feedback on smart farming apps in India. Emerging themes from the feedback analysis inform an understanding of the attributes of responsibilisation in policies through which agri‐digitalisation is being planned and introduced. The main findings indicate that agri‐digital innovations need to be inclusive of nonhegemonic vernaculars, responsive to farmers’ data privacy and ownership considerations and focus on producing simple, actionable insights for farmers instead of bombarding them with conflicting ideas. At the policy level, this article argues that the Indian policy landscape needs to be reformed substantially. This further suggests that India may need a new institutional architecture to manage the digital transition in agriculture.

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Section: Rri and End-user Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can end‐user feedback inform ‘Responsibilisation’ of India's policy landscape for agri‐digital transition?*

Kumar

Basu

2022

Sociologia Ruralis

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“…The final RTs can move on all predicted patterns with high safety indexes [6]. The VeBots laboratory same as many other laboratories in the field of ICT, has researched ARs such as path planning [7], vision intelligence [8], on-road and on-field navigation [9], navigation combination with different sensors [10,11], sensor fusion [12], autonomous tractor [13][14][15], turning functions [16,17], steering control [18], multi-robots [19], various platforms [20][21][22][23], and intelligent systems [6,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Then, Roshanianfard et al (2019) developed an end-effector to harvest pumpkins [29,38]. Finally, the preliminary tests in different aspects were applied [37]. After finishing the development processes, many tests were completed in various conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous Robotic System for Pumpkin Harvesting

et al. 2022

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The present study focused on the development, optimization, and performance evaluation of a harvesting robot for heavyweight agricultural products. The main objective of developing this system is to improve the harvesting process of the mentioned crops. The pumpkin was selected as a heavyweight target crop for this study. The main components of the robot consist of mobile platforms (the main robot tractor and a parallel robot tractor), a manipulation system and its end-effector, and an integrated control unit. The development procedure was divided into four stages: stage I (designed system using Solidworks), stage II (installation of the developed system on a temporary platform), stage III (developed system on an RT-1 (Yanmar EG453)), and stage IV (developed system on an RT-2 (Yanmar YT5113)). Various indicators related to the performance of the robot were evaluated. The accuracy of 5.8 and 4.78 mm in x and y directions and repeatability of 5.11 mm were observed. The harvesting success rate of 87~92%, and damage rate of 5% resulted in the evaluation of the final version. The average cycle time was 35.1 s, 42.6 s, and 43.2 s for stages II, III, and IV, respectively. The performance evaluations showed that the system’s indicators are good enough to harvest big-sized and heavy-weighted crops. Development of the unique and unified system, including a mobile platform, a manipulation system, an end-effector, and an integrated algorithm, completed the targeted harvesting process appropriately. The system can increase the speed and improve the harvesting process because it can work all day long, has a precise robotic manipulation and end-effector, and a programmable controlling system that can work autonomously.

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“…Ryan et al (2021) note research themes around benefit distribution of robots in agriculture, potential impacts on the idea of the "good farmer", how robots can contribute to positive animal welfare, and the duality of enacting sustainable farming with robots. The interaction between robots and work have been explored in several studies (Legun and Burch, 2021;Nazareno and Schiff, 2021;Rose et al, 2021a). Additionally, Ditzler and Driessen (2022) state that while robotics is envisaged to "transform open-field agriculture", a rethinking is required to broaden the robotic future imaginations to include more diverse farm systems and to incorporate aspects of sustainability.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this perspective paper, we consider the concepts of responsible innovation, systems thinking, and co-design to propose a design guide for development of robotics in pasture-grazed dairy farming. The paper builds on recent work interconnecting these domains by McCampbell et al (2021), Eastwood et al (2021), Rose et al (2021a), Ryan et al (2021), and Ditzler and Driessen (2022). Here, we address two questions related to the future use of robotics and automation systems in pasture-grazed dairy systems: 1) What are the key design criteria for development of robotics on pasture-grazed dairy systems to enable successful and responsible innovation?…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Responsible robotics design–A systems approach to developing design guides for robotics in pasture-grazed dairy farming

et al. 2022

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Application of robotics and automation in pasture-grazed agriculture is in an emergent phase. Technology developers face significant challenges due to aspects such as the complex and dynamic nature of biological systems, relative cost of technology versus farm labor costs, and specific market characteristics in agriculture. Overlaying this are socio-ethical issues around technology development, and aspects of responsible research and innovation. There are numerous examples of technology being developed but not adopted in pasture-grazed farming, despite the potential benefits to farmers and/or society, highlighting a disconnect in the innovation system. In this perspective paper, we propose a “responsibility by design” approach to robotics and automation innovation, using development of batch robotic milking in pasture-grazed dairy farming as a case study. The framework we develop is used to highlight the wider considerations that technology developers and policy makers need to consider when envisaging future innovation trajectories for robotics in smart farming. These considerations include the impact on work design, worker well-being and safety, changes to farming systems, and the influences of market and regulatory constraints.

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Responsible development of autonomous robotics in agriculture

Cited by 64 publications

References 26 publications

Can end‐user feedback inform ‘Responsibilisation’ of India's policy landscape for agri‐digital transition?*

Can end‐user feedback inform ‘Responsibilisation’ of India's policy landscape for agri‐digital transition?*

Autonomous Robotic System for Pumpkin Harvesting

Responsible robotics design–A systems approach to developing design guides for robotics in pasture-grazed dairy farming

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