In smart agriculture applications, companies are leveraging motion systems to improve reliability in their designs. Advances in automation technology as well as related advances in sensors, imaging, and communications have meant improvements to the kinds of motion control systems employed in agricultural applications as well as other off-highway uses.

That means that the smart agriculture market is only poised for more growth in the coming years. In the U.S. alone, the smart agriculture market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.4% from 2024 through 2030.

Design World editors recently asked a number of leading manufacturers involved in the agriculture and off-highway automation industries about trends they’re seeing. Here’s what they had to say.

Meet the experts

Brian Burke | Product manager III • Bishop-Wisecarver Corp.
Chris Caldwell | Product manager – material handling • Yaskawa Motoman
Brian Dengel | General manager • KHK USA Inc.
Karen Field | VP content marketing • Avnet
Travis Gilmer | Product line manager – Linear Actuators • Thomson Industries Inc.
Michael Giunta | VP of sales and marketing • Macron Dynamics Inc.
Ramon Guitart | VP of engineering — electric motors • Infinitum
Alex Marques | Product manager • Bishop-Wisecarver Corp.
David Mayers | Sales director • IDS Imaging Development Systems Inc.
Dusty Schafer | Manager — software engineering • Kollmorgen
Yoshi Umeno | Industry manager — global medical and robotics • Kollmorgen

What are the most significant advances in agricultural automation?

Guitart: Electrification of off-highway equipment is becoming easier with advancements in high-efficiency, sustainable electric motors that can bring innovation to the sector, support decarbonization, and improve machine reliability and productivity.

Giunta: Vertical farming, in my opinion, is critical for the future of North American agriculture with automation. Being able to provide a fresh product at the ideal time for consumption with reduced trucking times allows the consumer to enjoy a healthier and chemical-free product.

Caldwell: The vertical farming, indoor greenhouse, and variety of smart-farming operations align exceptionally well with robotic automation. There are a variety of tasks that can be completed and the range of products including our industrial and collaborative robots, linear motion range, and a variety of external axis solutions.

What components and systems are advancing automated farming?

Field: The most significant technologies for achieving autonomous operations in agriculture are geolocation, telematics, machine vision, and communications back to the operator. And, of course, there are the processors, sensors, controls, and other key components that make up these core technologies. Had there not been advancements in the way of faster speeds, smaller footprints, less power consumption, holistic IoT systems for collecting and analyzing data and more, autonomous operations would not be possible today. More capabilities are on the horizon, as the industry looks to implementing radar technology and beyond.

Autonomy and automation are getting tons of investment today in the agricultural equipment market, with companies at different phases of implementation. Greater efficiency is one goal, but other benefits include higher crop yields, more precision, and a reduction in the amount of environmental impact by using fewer chemicals and less water. There are autonomous vehicles in use today that can operate at a greater level of accuracy and precision than vehicles on the road, plant seeds within a centimeter accuracy, control the rate of seed dispensing, analyze the health of crops, and put down fertilizer only where it’s needed—just to name a few of the capabilities of the newest equipment offerings.

Umeno: Our motion control technologies are playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of farming, as the agricultural landscape undergoes a revolution driven by rising costs, labor shortages, and environmental concerns. Innovative solutions such as vertical farming and smart farming operations are gaining traction, demanding precise and efficient automation.

Especially in controlled environments like greenhouses where delicate crops like herbs, mushrooms, and tomatoes demand gentle handling to avoid damage. Kollmorgen offers a comprehensive range of housed and frameless motors, each designed to meet the specific needs of different agricultural applications. These include the AKM and AKM2G Series Servo Motors, which deliver superior torque density in a compact design, making them ideal for higher payload applications. Our frameless motors provide direct-drive smooth motion and efficiency in a compact form factor, and the TBM2G Series Servo Motors, which are specifically designed for robotic arm joints are ideal for an agricultural robot.

Mayers: Intelligent cameras certainly pave the way for future-oriented image-processing tasks such as plant growth monitoring, weed detection or checking whether certain object conditions are met. Artificial intelligence can also be used, for example, to classify fruit varieties or to identify damaged parts, such as apples with marks or color deviations. To cover all possible variances with classical image processing would be time-consuming and costly. AI – such as we offer with the IDS NXT vision system – can solve these challenges in no time at all.

Schafer: The motion controller demands are higher for agriculture applications that use vision systems and robots. Modifying trajectories on-the-fly when harvesting, sorting, and packaging is required. Reduced latency and accuracy are key, requiring the latest multi-core CPUs for fast throughput. Kollmorgen’s PCMM controller provides a range of computational power to meet the needs, all leveraging the same software.

B. Burke: The Bishop-Wisecarver DualVee linear guides feature a self-cleaning geometry that tends to sweep away debris in dirty and contaminated environments. These durable linear guides are commonly found on field applications such as automated harvesters and in food processing applications and equipment. An increase in automation is happening in farming and food processing particularly with autonomous vehicles that operate with fewer people or even unattended. These automation solutions provide around-the-clock production.

Dengel: Our components have been sourced by several agricultural businesses to use in farming robots. These systems incorporate vision systems, AI, and mechanical systems to select weeds to be removed or to select pests to be treated or to harvest produce at its peak ripening.

Marques: We’ve designed our actuator systems to be easily combined into long multi-axis configurations. Products like these are changing how much automation we’re seeing in greenhouse operations and vertical farming, because it allows many plants to be tended, sampled, or harvested by an automated mechanical system. Bishop-Wisecarver has supplied at least four companies developing self-driving tractor systems, at times providing design support as a collaborator for new product development. Sometimes our bearing components are used to support steering conversion kits (retrofitting tractors for automated GPS guidance), while other companies rely on our durable actuation for vision-guided crop-picking attachments.

Guitart: Infinitum’s Aircore Mobility motors are being deployed for power take-off (ePTO) applications in agricultural equipment to improve efficiency. Engineers can add power from 50 to 250 kW, without significantly increasing the size and weight of the drivetrain. Using an axial flux design, Aircore Mobility motors generate more torque and faster speed in a smaller package. Modular disc design lets engineers build multi-stator, multi-rotor motors in parallel to achieve higher output power and increased performance. Our design also allows for a highly efficient oil-cooling system that cools the interior stator, helping increase power density by three to five times.

Gilmer: For autonomous ground vehicles, we’re seeing the industry trend toward three major points of interest; increased controllability, electrification, and reduced complexity. Thomson is positioned to offer products that integrate control technologies into the axis of motion with electric linear actuators, an all-in-one design which hits all three trends simultaneously.

Common control architectures include bus integration with force and position feedback, which are critical for autonomous operation. Reduced complexity and overall footprint are just as critical to enable these technologies to effectively replace the combined space of a human and the vehicle, especially in material handling scenarios. Everything is powered electrically, which follows the trend of moving away from either manual or maintenance-dependent fluid power.

What technologies are making factory farming more humane?

Caldwell: Making factory farming more humane can take several directions. One area that Yaskawa robots have been deployed extensively in is the dairy industry, milking cattle. There are several benefits to automated milking, including increased sanitation, more consistent monitoring, and enhanced vision-based inspection that can more rapidly identify infections or other health issues. Beyond this application, there are several other factory farming applications targeted at humane treatment of animals.

Any thoughts on the electrification of off-highway equipment?

Umeno: Driven by environmental concerns, operational efficiency demands, and stricter regulations, we’re poised to play a pivotal role in the transition from traditional hydraulic systems to electric drivetrains. The drawbacks of the traditionally used hydraulic systems such as leakage, heat generation, and complex maintenance requirements that contribute to higher operating costs and environmental impact can be mitigated by shifting towards electric drivetrains.

We’re uniquely equipped to support the off-highway industry’s electrification journey with our comprehensive portfolio of electric motors and drives, specifically designed for demanding environmental and high torque applications while driving with our powerful line of housed and frameless motors or coupling with gearboxes or ball screws to simulate the actions of hydraulic actuators. Kollmorgen’s team of engineers possesses deep knowledge of electric actuator design and integration, assisting manufacturers in seamlessly transitioning from hydraulic to electric systems.

Field: While there have been some prototypes of full-electric technologies, developments today exist primarily at the research level. One key challenge is that heavy-duty farm machinery requires large diesel engines. Only the smallest can be operated without a combustion engine, as the required battery pack would likely be prohibitively large and provide only a few hours of work on the field. Coupled with long battery charging times, the value isn’t there yet. And that’s unlikely to change anytime soon, without extensive (yet unknown) improvements in battery and charging technology.