A robot design that helps increase agricultural yields while providing psychological comfort to the use

Abstract

The population-driven, urbanization-driven, and labor shortage-driven global demand for food increasingly requires technological innovation to meet such a need. Agricultural robots are among the most recent technological innovations aimed at enhancing productivity, efficiency, and sustainability while improving the state of psychological and physical health of their human operators. The current article reviews studies reporting on the design and control of those robotic systems that set an objective not only to increase yields but also to increase psychological comfort through approachable and collaborative Human–Robot Interaction (HRI). Agroautomation technological drivers are discussed in this paper. HRC is presented as a framework for adaptive user-centered system design with necessary factors regarding cognitive ergonomics levels of autonomy and interfaces for cooperation—such as gesture- and electromyography-based control in unstructured environments. Analysis regarding design considerations, challenges in autonomy, and nonverbal communication methods relevant to achieving safe, efficient, and psychologically supportive interaction between humans and robots is provided. With advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, collaborative robotic systems have the potential to transform modern agriculture- increasing productivity while improving human well-being. It is this techno logically intensified wave that grows fields of hope.