A Case-Based Economic Assessment of Robotics Employment in Precision Arable Farming
Maria G. Lampridi 1,2
, Dimitrios Kateris 1, Giorgos Vasileiadis 1,2, Vasso Marinoudi 3,4, Simon Pearson 4, Claus G. Sørensen 5, Athanasios Balafoutis 1 and Dionysis Bochtis 1,*
, Dimitrios Kateris 1, Giorgos Vasileiadis 1,2, Vasso Marinoudi 3,4, Simon Pearson 4, Claus G. Sørensen 5, Athanasios Balafoutis 1 and Dionysis Bochtis 1,*
1
Institute for Bio-Economy and Agri-Technology—IBO, Center for Research & Technology Hellas—CERTH, 6th km Charilaou-Thermi Rd, Thermi, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
2
Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
3
Engineers for Business A/S (EfB), Doiranis 17, GR 54639 Thessaloniki, Greece
4
Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln LN6 7TS, UK
5
Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, Finlandsgade 22, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Agronomy 2019, 9(4), 175; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9040175
Received: 28 February 2019 / Revised: 25 March 2019 / Accepted: 3 April 2019 / Published: 5 April 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture)
Abstract
The need to intensify agriculture to meet increasing nutritional needs, in combination with the evolution of unmanned autonomous systems has led to the development of a series of “smart” farming technologies that are expected to replace or complement conventional machinery and human labor. This paper proposes a preliminary methodology for the economic analysis of the employment of robotic systems in arable farming. This methodology is based on the basic processes for estimating the use cost for agricultural machinery. However, for the case of robotic systems, no average norms for the majority of the operational parameters are available. Here, we propose a novel estimation process for these parameters in the case of robotic systems. As a case study, the operation of light cultivation has been selected due the technological readiness for this type of operation. View Full-Text
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Lampridi, M.G.; Kateris, D.; Vasileiadis, G.; Marinoudi, V.; Pearson, S.; Sørensen, C.G.; Balafoutis, A.; Bochtis, D. A Case-Based Economic Assessment of Robotics Employment in Precision Arable Farming. Agronomy 2019, 9, 175.
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