A review of core agricultural robot technologies for crop productions

It has become a common understanding that robotization could be one of effective solutions to address the increasing skilled labor shortage challenge in crop production, thus the research and development of agricultural robotic technologies has become a popular topic in recent years, with numerous innovative new technologies, methodologies and applications being published at various resources. This article intends to provide a systematic overview of the recent achievements on core agricultural robotic technologies for crop productions, mainly on three aspects of (1) mobile platforms and in-field navigation technologies; (2) actuation mechanisms and end-effector technologies; and (3) target detection and operation planning technologies. This article also briefly introduces a few recent reported successes in developing robotic solutions for various field operations, such as transplanting, weeding, harvesting, and pruning, as evidences of promising.