Against the background of a growing global population which is set to reach 10 billion people before the end of the century, the agricultural sector faces unprecedented challenges. How can food be produced in a sufficient quantity without endangering valuable natural resources such as clean groundwater and fertile land? And how can it be ensured that in times of acute labor shortage an adequate workforce is available for the intensive work steps involved in harvesting and maintaining crops? Smart technologies have the potential to significantly increase efficiency in farming.
Apart from heavy machinery that cultivates acres of land and fields, farming also relies on extensive manual labor for harvesting fruit and vegetables, eradicating weeds or cutting trees. The considerable physical exertion involved in these activities as well as the growing shortage of manpower pose enormous challenges for agriculture. The use of state-of-the-art technology in the form of autonomous agricultural robots, intelligent cultivation equipment or networked machinery offers promising solutions for boosting efficiency in the agricultural sector.
A mobile robot with gripper arm can be used for e.g. reliably harvesting fruit that has reached its optimum level of ripeness, determined through camera-assisted sensors. Compact drives from FAULHABER, which can be used in the single-wheel drive, in the robot arm as well as in the gripping device, ensure that the necessary operations are performed precisely and reliably. Autonomous field robots, which owing to their low weight protect the arable land, or intelligent cultivation systems, which can sow seed or spread fertilizer exactly where it is needed, also work efficiently.
The compactness of agricultural robots and their much lower weight compared to traditional large-scale equipment means that the used drive systems also need to be as compact as possible, like the flat DC-micromotors of the BXT series from FAULHABER. At the same time, the drives must also function reliably and continuously even with major fluctuations in temperature and under the harshest conditions. The extremely robust motors of the CXR family are ideally suited for such applications. Incremental encoders and extremely compact drive electronics enable dynamic and highly precise positioning when sowing, replanting or harvesting.
