Researchers at U-M, Technion and Weizmann are working together to combine cutting-edge advances in assistive robotics, robot autonomy, advanced mechanics, computer vision, machine learning and human-machine interfaces to make farming safer, easier and more productive.
Agriculture is a basic human need that is highly constrained by the current availability of workforce. It often entails backbreaking work in exposed environments.
Better agricultural practices, utilizing intelligent robotic systems on land and in the air, will help reduce fatigue and health hazards for farmers, reduce pollution and waste, and limit the enormous ecological damage caused by farming in its various forms. Any significant change in farming efficiencies could profoundly affect the problematic political and moral issues surrounding farm worker immigration and indenture, and thereby reduce human suffering worldwide.