Autonomous Machinery Looks to Cultivate Future of Farming, Heavy Industry

Despite their low-tech reputations, the industrial and agricultural sectors are being reimagined by autonomous solutions.

The advent of autonomous commercial vehicles, as well as across warehouse operations, couldn’t be coming at a better time. Within agriculture alone, the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are around 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually. Separately, a skilled tradesmen shortage has left 88% of contractors struggling to find skilled labor.

“Our agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping customers all have work that must get done at certain times of the day and year, yet there is not enough available and skilled labor to do the work,” said Jahmy Hindman, chief technology officer at John Deere, in a Monday (Jan. 6) statement announcing the debut of John Deere’s latest driverless machines.

“Autonomy can help address this challenge. That’s why we’re extending our technology stack to enable more machines to operate safely and autonomously in unique and complex environments,” Hindman explained, noting that certain of the company’s machines will be “autonomy ready from the factory,” while the second-generation perception system will be available as a retrofit kit for certain existing machines.

By automating repetitive and labor-intensive tasks, agribusinesses and farm operators can autonomously plow, plant and harvest crops with precision, reducing the margin of error and maximizing yield.

Read more: Tesla’s ‘Cybercab’ Event Shows Autonomy Still More Hollywood Than High-Impact

Cultivating the Future of Farming

While innovations pulled from science fiction, such as robotaxis and self-driving cars, dominate public conversations, advances in autonomy are quietly rewriting the rules of productivity, efficiency, and even sustainability in agriculture, construction and heavy industry.

These sectors are becoming the proving grounds for automation’s potential — a shift driven by necessity and fueled by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and real-time connectivity.

“If you look at the current situation that we’re in with agriculture today, especially in the U.S., labor is the number one challenge across the board. Whether you’re a farmer or you’re a business in the supply chain, you have serious labor problems where you don’t have enough people. The exciting part of AI is that these tools can help fill certain roles in the business that are growing increasingly hard to find or fill,” Jake Joraanstad, CEO at Bushel, told PYMNTS for the “AI Effect” series.

For example, autonomous self-driving tractors equipped with machine vision and AI, like those developed by John Deere, can navigate fields, plant seeds, and spray crops without human intervention, ensuring precision and reducing resource waste.

Drones represent another potential game-changer in agriculture, providing farmers with real-time data on crop health and enabling targeted interventions that enhance yield and reduce costs.

The backbone of these autonomous innovations lies in AI and connectivity. Machine learning algorithms enable robots and drones to learn from their environments, adapt to changing conditions, and make decisions in real time. Meanwhile, advancements in 5G and edge computing are enhancing the responsiveness and reliability of autonomous systems, particularly in remote locations.

Read more: Robots Get Nimble New AI Brain for Tricky Warehouse Work

Revolutionizing Manufacturing and Logistics

Industrial settings are also turning to autonomous technologies to address their own labor shortages, optimize operations, and enhance safety. From robotic arms in manufacturing plants to self-navigating forklifts in warehouses, autonomy is becoming integral to global supply chains.

“It’s one thing to have same-day delivery, it’s another thing to have same-day delivery in a 115 degree heat dome. We see the opportunity for automation or robotics to have a tremendous impact on a more sustainable economy and planet,” Andrew Smith, founder and CEO of Outrider, told PYMNTS.

“If you think about where the worst congestion is, the most painful point of an over-the-road trucker’s day is when they actually get to their destination after hours of being on the road, all of a sudden they have to wait in line, getting in and out,” he added.

As PYMNTS has covered previously, research at MIT that developed an AI system that could let warehouse robots deftly handle odd-shaped packages and navigate crowded spaces without putting human workers in danger. Elsewhere, Agility Robotics’ Digit can use AI to pick and sort in fulfillment centers, while Amazon’s Sparrow applies AI for object recognition and sorting, increasing the speed and accuracy of warehouse operations and automating repetitive processes.

Read more: From Factories to the Fast Lane, Unpacking Autonomy’s Potential