Soft Robotics as an Enabling Technology for Agroforestry Practice and Research

Girish Chowdhary, Mattia Gazzola, Girish Krishnan, Chinmay Soman and Sarah Lovell
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Girish Chowdhary: Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Champaign, IL 61801, USA
Mattia Gazzola: Department of Mechanical Science & Engineering, UIUC, Champaign, IL 61801, USA
Girish Krishnan: Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, UIUC, Champaign, IL 61801, USA
Chinmay Soman: EarthSense, Inc Champaign, Champaign IL 61820, USA
Sarah Lovell: School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 23, 1-21

Abstract: The shortage of qualified human labor is a key challenge facing farmers, limiting profit margins and preventing the adoption of sustainable and diversified agroecosystems, such as agroforestry. New technologies in robotics could offer a solution to such limitations. Advances in soft arms and manipulators can enable agricultural robots that can have better reach and dexterity around plants than traditional robots equipped with hard industrial robotic arms. Soft robotic arms and manipulators can be far less expensive to manufacture and significantly lighter than their hard counterparts. Furthermore, they can be simpler to design and manufacture since they rely on fluidic pressurization as the primary mechanisms of operation. However, current soft robotic arms are difficult to design and control, slow to actuate, and have limited payloads. In this paper, we discuss the benefits and challenges of soft robotics technology and what it could mean for sustainable agriculture and agroforestry.

Keywords: sustainable agriculture; multifunctional landscapes; perennial polyculture; robotics; mechanical engineering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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