In our current society, the agriculture field is facing some difficulties. Today, the average farmer’s age is between 50 and 58; there are only a few or no young generations who want to work in the field. The aging of farmers, lacking workers, rising labor costs, and unpredictable climate changes are causing some problems. As a solution, the robots and machines came along, playing an effective role in this field of farming. According to this article, there are some robots and machines that are introduced: exoskeletons, weed pullers, fruit pickers, and LiDAR. Basically, the article is stating these technologies are and will make the agriculture field much easier and effective.
The exoskeletons will help the old farmers who have difficulties in lifting things or using too many muscles. This technology is designed to support the farmers’ movements without having much pressure on their back, arms, knees, and even helping them when lifting heavyweights. Since it is impossible for the farmers to pull out every single weed by themselves and the using too much herbicide would harm other crops, engineers developed weed puller that could recognize the weed with regular crops and remove the matured weeds for the farmers. Also, with the usage of a 3D-printed hand and special vision system, engineers developed a fruit picker to detect the fruits for it to pick out. Lastly, to save the farmers’ trouble, they developed a technology where it could collect the overall data about the land and field where it detects plants’ diseases, health, physiology, and stress response.
Overall, I think this technology would definitely make a better life for the old farmer. I have heard of various machines that are already used in the field of agriculture but I think this development in technology would really save time and help the farmers. However, I think too much development in these robots would replace the human labor force and cause unemployment issues and so on. Therefore, I think finding the right amount of development and substitution is necessary.
Source: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/robots-redefining-future-farming/
It is true that over development on robots and auto machines can cause unemployment issues. However, considering the costs and investments of those robots, it is rarely possible to replace every farmers’ job. In fact, it is really useful for farmers to have exoskeletons and machines assisting their work to be more efficient and easier. It is interesting to look forward and see how can human labor and robots create a better economy.
The exoskeletons sound like a great idea. It can help farmers continue to work, without outright replacing them. Instead, the exoskeleton only assists the human farmer who is doing the labor themselves. The data collecting technology is helpful too, while still leaving the labor up to the farmer. I do see technology like this replacing human labor if it is developed too far. If the focus of developing this tech is only on developing tools to help farmers, it could be a wonderful thing.