According to a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, approximately 828 million people across the world are suffering from hunger, making the need to address global food insecurity more urgent than ever.
However, The Conversation reported that progress in this area may soon be attainable, as a research team from Simon Fraser University's School of Mechatronics Systems Engineering has created a prototype of a sensing robot powered by artificial intelligence that can monitor the water needs of tomato plants all on its own.
As changing climates and hotter temperatures across the globe make traditional farming more challenging, autonomous indoor farming systems may be the future. These systems would be able to manage environmental conditions, water, nutrients, and more, with the help of AI, revolutionizing how people produce food and making it easier to farm in areas with limited arable land.
This method of farming could also help reduce the global drought crisis. Current water management techniques in indoor farming include automated irrigation systems and soil moisture sensors, but these methods can be imprecise, leading to overwatering or under-watering.
The robot created by the team from Simon Fraser utilizes plant electrophysiology responses, or the electric signals that plants emit, to determine the hydration needs and health of the plant. As the robot is more precise than current water management techniques, it promotes plant health and efficient water use while reducing waste.
Advances in robotics and plant physiological signal monitoring have already shown that sensing a plant's electrical signals can offer specific and real-time data while allowing for precise and timely interventions. The Simon Fraser robot enhances these processes by continuously monitoring the state of a plant's health, thereby making the response more effective.
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Even better, recent research and innovations have improved researchers' ability to detect plant stress and disease, and these products could be integrated with robots, like Simon Fraser's, to create comprehensive plant health monitoring systems.
With the help of multifunctional AI-powered robots like this, agriculture could see reduced waste, increased crop yields, optimized use of resources, and an increase in global food security, thus contributing to the overall sustainability goal of cleaning up the agriculture and food industries.
The use of these robots could significantly curb pollution as well, making the air cleaner for farming communities and reducing respiratory diseases.
However, the most significant goal of utilizing AI-powered water management while farming could be its help in easing the drought crisis. The Simon Fraser team's goal is to create easy-to-deploy and affordable sensor robots that can be used on smaller farms.
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While The Conversation didn't mention a timeline for when such sensor robots could hit the market, the development of the Simon Fraser robot is an excellent step toward progress in mitigating global food and water scarcity.
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