trans1_small
University of Arizona
When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.
  • Home
  • Pest Identification
    • Pest Identification Home
    • Diseases
    • Weeds
    • Insects
    • Pest Diagnostics
    • Pest Identification - Outputs
    • Events
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Agricultural IPM
    • Agricultural IPM Home
    • Vegetables
    • Field Crops
    • Other Crops
    • Agricultural Pesticide Safety
    • Agricultural IPM Outputs
    • Events
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • IPM Assessment
    • IPM Assessment Home
    • Crop Pest Losses
    • Impacts
    • EPA Pesticide Registration Reviews
    • How To Submit Comments to EPA
    • Previously Submitted EPA Comments
    • Projects
    • IPM Assessment Outputs
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Community IPM
    • Community IPM Home
    • School IPM
    • Public Health IPM
    • Turfgrass
    • Community Pesticide Safety
    • Community Insect Gallery
    • Handbook on Pests
    • Home and School IPM Newsletters
    • Community IPM Resources
    • Events
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Pesticide Education and Training
    • Pesticide Education and Training Home
    • Ag Licensing Resources
    • Community Licensing Resources
    • Special Pesticide Registrations
    • Pesticide Safety Outputs
    • Events
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • About Us
    • Partners and Links
    • Contact Us
    • Organizational Chart
    • Arizona Pest Management Center
    • Mission
    • Working Groups
    • Organization
    • Social Media
  • Home
  • Pest Identification
    • Pest Identification Home
    • Diseases
      • Publications And Resources
      • Photo Gallery
    • Weeds
      • Sample Submissions
      • Publications And Resources
      • Noxious Invasive Weeds
      • Weed Photo Gallery
      • Herbicide Injury
    • Insects
      • Sample Submissions
      • Publications And Resources
      • Insect Collection
      • Photo Gallery
      • Insect Injury
      • Community Insect Gallery
    • Pest Diagnostics
      • Herbicide Injury
      • Insect Injury
      • Publications And Resources
      • Photo Gallery
    • Pest Identification - Outputs
      • Presentations
      • Publications
      • Shorts
      • Medias
    • Events
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Agricultural IPM
    • Agricultural IPM Home
    • Vegetables
      • Lettuce
        • Crop Management
        • Soil Management
        • Irrigation
        • Varieties
        • Insects
        • Diseases
        • Weeds
      • Melons
        • Crop Management
        • Soil Management
        • Irrigation
        • Varieties
        • Insects
        • Diseases
        • Weeds
      • Cole Crops
        • Crop Management
        • Soil Management
        • Irrigation
        • Varieties
        • Insects
        • Diseases
        • Weeds
      • Spinach
        • Crop Management
        • Soil Management
        • Irrigation
        • Varieties
        • Insects
        • Diseases
        • Weeds
      • Vegetable Outputs
        • Presentations
        • Publications
      • VIPM Updates
      • VIPM Archive
      • Vegetable Video Archive
      • VIPM Update Cartoons
      • Events
    • Field Crops
      • Alfalfa
        • Crop Management
        • Soil Management
        • Irrigation
        • Varieties
        • Insects
        • Diseases
        • Weeds
        • Pesticide
      • Corn and Sorghum
        • Crop Management
        • Soil Management
        • Irrigation
        • Varieties
        • Insects
        • Diseases
        • Weeds
        • Pesticide
      • Cotton
        • Crop Management
        • Soil Management
        • Irrigation
        • Varieties
        • Insects
        • Diseases
        • Weeds
        • Pesticide
      • Guayule
        • Crop Management
        • Soil Management
        • Irrigation
        • Varieties
        • Insects
        • Diseases
        • Weeds
        • Pesticide
      • Small Grains
        • Crop Management
        • Soil Management
        • Irrigation
        • Varieties
        • Insects
        • Diseases
        • Weeds
        • Pesticide
      • Risk Reduction
      • Outputs
        • Publications
        • Presentations
        • Videos
      • Events
      • Field Crops IPM Shorts
    • Other Crops
      • Citrus
      • Tree and Nut Crops
      • Cross Commodity
    • Agricultural Pesticide Safety
    • Agricultural IPM Outputs
      • Presentations
      • Publications
      • Agricultural IPM Shorts
    • Events
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • IPM Assessment
    • IPM Assessment Home
    • Crop Pest Losses
      • Cotton Pest Losses
      • Vegetable Pest Losses
    • Impacts
    • EPA Pesticide Registration Reviews
    • How To Submit Comments to EPA
    • Previously Submitted EPA Comments
    • Projects
      • Crop Pest Losses
    • IPM Assessment Outputs
      • Presentations
      • Publications
      • Shorts
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Community IPM
    • Community IPM Home
    • School IPM
      • Stop School Pests
      • IPM for Sensitive Sites in the Built Environment
    • Public Health IPM
      • Arizona Conenose Bugs
      • Bed Bugs
      • Bees
      • Body Lice
      • False Chinch Bugs
      • Fire Ants
      • Head Lice
      • Longhorned Tick
      • Mosquitoes
      • Scorpions
      • EPA Border 2020
    • Turfgrass
      • Pre-emergence Weed Control - Lawns
      • History of the Lawn and Turfgrass
      • Nitrogen and Iron Deficiencies
      • Publications and Resources
    • Community Pesticide Safety
      • Presentations
      • Publications
    • Community Insect Gallery
    • Handbook on Pests
    • Home and School IPM Newsletters
    • Community IPM Resources
    • Events
      • 2021 Emergency Preparedness Workshop
      • 2022 Emergency Preparedness Workshop
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Pesticide Education and Training
    • Pesticide Education and Training Home
    • Ag Licensing Resources
    • Community Licensing Resources
    • Special Pesticide Registrations
    • Pesticide Safety Outputs
      • Presentations
      • Publications
      • Pesticide Safety Shorts
    • Events
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • About Us
    • Partners and Links
    • Contact Us
    • Organizational Chart
    • Arizona Pest Management Center
    • Mission
    • Working Groups
    • Organization
    • Social Media
  1. Agricultural IPM
  2. Vegetables
  3. VIPM Archive
  4. VIPM Mechanization View
Mechanization
Apr 7, 2021
Technology Needs for Automated

Vol. 12, Issue 7, Published 4/7/2021

Over the last several years, there has been a tremendous amount of research activity towards the development of autonomous agriculture vehicles. A quick internet search will reveal over 50 companies or university research groups working in this space. A question I get often from groups developing such platforms is “What is a good agricultural application for our lightweight “robot”?”. It’s a great question, and for Arizona vegetable production, it’s also one that I’m not sure I have a satisfying answer for.

The calls I get regarding autonomous robots are mostly related to automated weeding applications. Automated weeding machines are commercially available, but their adoption has been limited not because of labor costs for tractor operation, rather it is the lack of the development of a functional and cost-effective means for identifying and removing weeds.

For decades, researchers have been attempting to develop sensing systems that are able to reliably detect weeds. Techniques such as 2-D and 3-D color imaging, x-rays, hyperspectral sensing and artificial intelligence have been tried (Slaughter, 2014; Bender et al., 2020). The best performing systems provide about 96% accuracy, meaning that 4% of the crops plants are identified as weeds and would be destroyed by the weeder. For high value vegetable crops like lettuce with gross revenues of roughly $10,000 per acre, killing 4% of the crop equates to $400 per acre of losses. Economically, this does not make sense as hand weeding labor costs are typically $300 per acre or less. The other main issue is that current automated weeding technologies are not highly precise and provide only partial control. Our studies with these types of machines have shown that these systems remove only about 1/3rd of the in-row weeds (Lati, et al., 2016) and a follow up hand weeding operation is often necessary. To be highly cost effective, elimination of the hand weeding step is needed.

In short, my recommendation to research groups asking about applications for autonomous robots is that their time and technical skills would best be served developing reliable crop/weed differentiation systems and a technique to remove a very high percentage of weeds.

References
Bender, A., Whelan, B. & Sukkarieh, S. 2020. A high‐resolution, multimodal data set for agricultural robotics: A Ladybird's‐eye view of Brassica. J. Field Robotics. 37(1): 73-96.

Lati, R.N, Siemens, M.C., Rachuy, J.S. & Fennimore, S.A. (2016). Intrarow Weed Removal in Broccoli and Transplanted Lettuce with an Intelligent Cultivator. Weed Technology, 30(3), 655-663.

Slaughter, D.C. The biological engineer: Sensing the difference between crops and weeds. Autonomous robotic weed control systems: A review. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 61(2008): 63-78.

To contact Mark C. Siemens go to: siemens@cals.arizona.edu
APMC Logo BW Inverted
CALS Logo Black and white Inverted
ARIZONA PEST MANAGEMENT CENTER
University of Arizona
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Maricopa Agricultural Center

37860 W. Smith-Enke Road
Maricopa, AZ 85239
FULL CONTACT
LIST
facebook
twitter


© Arizona Board of Regents

University Privacy Statement