Abstract
Despite recent developments in satellite-based agricultural crop monitoring, agricultural food production is still very much a traditional process in which the monitoring of the farming fields is still a manual process. In addition, the application of crop nutrients and control of pest and disease remains at best a very much hard automated process in respect of spreading fertilisers and pest control agents. There is a strong desire from the farming community and at governmental level to accelerate the advancement of smart faming, which requires more frequent soil condition measurement, precision fertiliser application and more optimal pest agent control and application. Mechatronic systems as the outcome of an academic discipline have much to offer to smart farming, and sustainable and secure food production. This chapter looks at the recent development of mechatronic systems for farming applications and focuses on a sustainable approach with more energy efficient ways of designing a mechatronic solution for farm soil monitoring and selective harvesting. It is intended that a more sustainable paradigm can be followed and strengthened for more sustainable and energy efficient food production.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
World Population to Reach 9.9 Billion by 2050. News. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://sdg.iisd.org/news/world-population-to-reach-9-9-billion-by-2050/
Forecast of the global middle class population from 2015 to 2030, by region (in millions). Statista. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from www.statista.com/statistics/255591/forecast-on-the-worldwide-middle-class-population-by-region
Klarin T (2018) The concept of sustainable development: from its beginning to the contemporary issues. Zagreb Int Rev Econ Bus 21(1):67–94
Electricity Information: Overview. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from www.iea.org/reports/electricity-information-overview
Gerstlberger W, Præst Knudsen M, Stampe I (2014) Sustainable development strategies for product innovation and energy efficiency. Bus Strateg Environ 23(2):131–144
Hosseini SE, Butler B (2020) An overview of development and challenges in hydrogen powered vehicles. Int J Green Energy 17(1):13–37
Walker P, Mason R, Carrington D (2019) Theresa may commits to net zero UK carbon emissions by 2050. The Guardian 11(6):19. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/11/theresa-may-commits-to-net-zero-uk-carbon-emissions-by-2050
Gellings CW (2009) Energy efficiency in agricultural equipment. EOLSS Publishers, Efficient Use and Conservation of Energy, pp 106–122
Hunt ND, Liebman M, Thakrar SK, Hill JD (2020) Fossil energy use, climate change impacts, and air quality-related human health damages of conventional and diversified cropping systems in Iowa USA. Environ Scie Technol 54(18):11002–11014
Negrete JC (2017) Mechatronics and precision livestock farming in Mexican animal production. Anim Rev 4(1):1–7
Yan X-T, Bianco A, Niu C, Palazzetti R, Henry G, Li YH, Tubby W, Kisdi A, Irshad R, Sanders S, Scott R (2020) The AgriRover: a reinvented mechatronic platform from space robotics for precision farming. In Reinventing Mechatronics. Springer, pp 55–73
Acknowledgements
The authors of the chapter would like to thank Innovate UK and UK Space Agency for providing funding to develop an AgriRover for trial under SmartFarm project. The authors would also like to acknowledge the significant contribution towards AgriRover prototyping by colleagues from Robotics Group of RAL Space. In addition, the authors would like to thank colleagues at the National Engineering Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture (NERCITA), China for providing information of their farm for trial planning reported in this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Niu, C., Li, Y., Yan, XT. (2022). Sustainable Mechatronic Solution for Agricultural Precision Farming Inspired by Space Robotics Technologies. In: Hehenberger, P., Habib, M., Bradley, D. (eds) EcoMechatronics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07555-1_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07555-1_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-07554-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-07555-1
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)