Advances in Agriculture 4.0

Dear Colleagues,

The fourth agricultural revolution, known as Agriculture 4.0 in analogy to Industry 4.0, refers to the anticipated radical changes in agricultural production through the application of recent advances in Information Technology. Agriculture 4.0 is a term for the next big trends to impact this industry, including a greater focus on precision agriculture with the regular application of the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous robots, big-data (from sensors, earth observation, logistics, etc.), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to drive greater business efficiencies, make smarter planning decisions, and lower the environmental footprint. These technological innovations are expected to play a major role in addressing the four main challenges, identified in the 2018 report published by the World Government Summit, facing future agricultural production: rising populations, scarcity of natural resources, climate change, and food waste.

With Agriculture 4.0, the whole agri-food chain will become more competitive and profitable, through the extended use of smart networked sensors, automation systems, and information technology. Deeper insight and precise advice for plant requirements will empower farmers to minimize agricultural input (water, nutrients, plant protection, etc.) thus minimizing environmental and health hazards, but also to scale production further by reducing space requirements, growing periods, and logistic chains. Labor-intensive tasks will be undertaken by autonomous ground robots or unmanned aerial vehicles, equipped with machine vision systems and precision telemetry. Tighter specifications and traceability – made possible by data connectivity – will boost quality across the supply chain to meet the demands of local and international food markets and to increase consumer trust.

The goal of this Special Issue is to disseminate high-quality, state-of-the-art research papers that deal with challenging issues in Agriculture 4.0. We solicit original papers of unpublished and completed research that are not currently under review by any other conference/magazine/journal. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, modeling and applied approaches, at various scales (from lab to field and global), including engineering aspects and agronomical impact of the following:

• Advances in sensors technologies for Agriculture 4.0;
• Advances in communications and networking for Agriculture 4.0;
• Advances in autonomous robotic systems and unmanned aerial vehicles for Agriculture 4.0;
• Blockchain technologies for Agriculture 4.0;
• Food traceability and supply chain management for Agriculture 4.0;
• Low-power and energy-efficient Agriculture 4.0;
• Advances in machine vision for Agriculture 4.0;
• Cloud/fog/edge/extreme edge computing for Agriculture 4.0;
• Sensor and data fusion for Agriculture 4.0;
• Advances in profiling and human–computer interfaces for Agriculture 4.0;
• Machine learning and computational intelligence for Agriculture 4.0;
• Decision support systems for Agriculture 4.0;
• Data analytics for Agriculture 4.0.

Dr. Spyros Panagiotakis
Dr. Michael Sfakiotakis
Dr. Ioannis N. Daliakopoulos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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