Robots Are Coming to Agriculture, says Lux report

July 6, 2016 |

In Massachusetts, a new report from Lux Research concluded that “Robotics can be competitive with human labor in some cases already, and falling costs over the next decade will open up more applications.” Lux Research analysts studied automation in agriculture and the developers of robots. Among their findings:

• Robots near parity with labor in corn farms. “Autosteer” systems for tractors and harvesters can be cost-effective for corn growers with large operations, and have achieved a nearly 10% market penetration. The gap between labor cost and Autosteer- or Edrive-assisted labor in U.S. corn farming is relatively small and will become negligible by 2020.

• European lettuce growing becomes autonomous in 2028. Automated lettuce weeding is already competitive with human labor in Europe, thanks to regulatory limitations on agrochemicals. Lettuce thinning is still accomplished manually at lower cost, but robots are likely to reach breakeven with human labor in 2028.

• Machines are a good fit for Japanese strawberry fields. A strawberry-harvesting robot is approximately cost-equivalent to human labor in Japan, but only when shared by multiple farms. With strawberry-picking being slow and labor-intensive, and labor scarce and expensive – the average agricultural worker in Japan is over 70 years old – the robot is quickly likely to become the cheaper option.

The report, titled “Planting the Seeds of a Robot Revolution: How Autonomous Systems Are Integrating into Precision Agriculture,” is part of the Lux Research Agro Innovation Intelligence and the Autonomous Systems 2.0 Intelligence services.

Category: Research

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