World population growth has put agricultural land in dire straits. They are under tremendous pressure to produce more and more food to meet the needs of billions of people. At the same time, they face serious environmental and economic challenges. Government and consumers increasingly expect fruit and vegetable producers to use fewer pesticides. In addition, hiring seasonal workers is becoming an increasingly difficult task, and severe labour shortages are hampering agricultural enterprises in many countries. As a result of this problem and as an alternative to human labour, more and more agricultural companies are turning to the introduction of autonomous machines. Let’s take a look at some of them.

The German farm Fendt and the Ulm University of Applied Sciences have jointly developed the Fendt Xaver seed robot (fi g. 1). European Union funding has allowed the duo to develop technology that enables farmers to deploy a swarm of small robots in the fi eld to perform a variety of planting tasks. The robotic system consists of several parts. The logistics unit in the hi-tech trailer is responsible for charging the battery, delivering seeds, and controlling the small four-wheeled robots through the cloud. Using the tablet, farmers can plan robot tasks and monitor planting data [7, 8].

The machines are controlled and optimized by the OptiVisor algorithm and additionally use satellite navigation to report their exact position, which allows operators to optimize planting operations. The lightweight and maintenance-free motor make these fi eld robots highly energy efficient. In addition, the battery can be charged in various ways: from the mains, using biogas plants, wind energy or fuel cells [1].

The autonomous Dino robot (fig. 2) from Naïo Technologies loosens and weeds, preventing the weeds from absorbing the water and nutrients the plants need. The 800 kg four-wheeled robot is equipped with a computer vision system that detects crop rows and constantly adjusts its mechanical devices to ensure high-precision work. It should be noted that the machine is effective for weeding vegetables such as lettuce, carrots, onions grown in the field, both in the beds and in rows [2].