New Research on Automated and Efficient Agricultural Machineries

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

The field of agriculture is currently under pressure from the growing demand for food linked to the increasing global population. Academia and industry are focusing their attention on searching for new solutions to increase the productivity and efficiency of agricultural machinery in order to meet this demand, minimizing the environmental impacts of agricultural operations to the greatest extent possible. Electrification and automation can play important roles in revolutionizing traditional farming practices, reducing the amount of fossil fuels required to perform field activities. The synergy between electrification and automation is particularly evident when it comes to the development of agricultural tractors and autonomous rovers, for which technological advancements can allow tasks to be performed with higher precision, less fuel consumption, and minimal human intervention, lowering both environmental impact and costs.

Today’s challenge is to think of new powertrain systems that can increase these machines’ work efficiency, thus limiting the amount of fuel burnt per unit of work performed. Electrification, biofuels, hydrogen, and intelligent energy management systems can allow us to achieve this important goal. Simultaneously, it is important to work on increasing task efficiency to facilitate maximum productivity. Autonomous rovers can play an important role in optimizing field and plant treatments since they allow continuous monitoring from the field.

The aim for this Topic is to gather contributions from experts in the field of agricultural machineries and rovers devoted to the pursuit of efficiency improvements at the powertrain or system level. Topics of interest for publication include the following:

• The design, modelling, control, and optimization of hybrid, electric, and fuel cell powertrain systems;
• The design, modelling, control, and optimization of hydrostatic, hydraulic, and electro-hydraulic systems for machine automation;
• Systems for autonomous guidance and agricultural field operations;
• The design and development of advanced mobile robotic systems for agricultural mechanization;
• Circular design and the environmental impact of innovative vehicles and powertrain components;
• Diagnostic and predictive maintenance for powertrain efficiency optimization during vehicle service life.

Dr. Francesco Mocera
Prof. Dr. Aurelio Somà
Dr. Simone Pascuzzi
Topic Editors

Keywords

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Agriculture agriculture	3.3	4.9	2011	19.2 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
Applied Sciences applsci	2.5	5.3	2011	18.4 Days	CHF 2400	Submit
Sci sci	-	4.5	2019	37.1 Days	CHF 1200	Submit
Energies energies	3.0	6.2	2008	16.8 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
AgriEngineering agriengineering	3.0	4.7	2019	21.8 Days	CHF 1600	Submit

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