“I, Robot” is coming to farming – very quickly, skies to furrows – even to manure cleaning.

Farms are no strangers to technology, from the latest tractors to cow milking and harvesting. Now come the drones as Raleigh-based PrecisionHawk helps farmers with precise geomapping capabilities. And a new report from a U.K. research firm shows just how robotic farms are becoming, including – you guessed it, even autonomous tractors.

Drones on the farm aren’t breaking news. An Associated Press report earlier this week noted how drones are helping farms combat drought in California. The FAA just granted the first license to PrecisionHawk for out of line-of-sight guidance of drones and pilot training. But the robotic farm report from IDTechEx Research is enlightening,noting that ag robotics and drones are already a $3 billion market.

By 2022, the market could erupt to as much as $10 billion with:

  • Robotic milking parlors
  • Autonomous tractors
  • Robotic weeders
  • Automated harvesters

… and much more taking root.

“Robots and drones have already started to quietly transform many aspects of agriculture, IDTechEx reports in its “Agricultural Robots and Drones 2016-2026: Technologies, Markets, and Players” analysis.

“[R]obotic market and technology developments will change the business of agriculture, enabling ultra-precision farming and helping address the key global challenges,” the report predicts.

The impact of robotics is already becoming clear beyond the emergence of drones as a farmers’ tool.

Some report highlights:

  • Dairy farms

“Thousands of robotic milking parlors have already been installed worldwide, creating a $1.9bn industry that is projected to grow to $8.5bn by 2026.”

Robots also are “helping automate tasks such as feed pushing or manure cleaning.”

  • Autonomous tractors

“Unmanned autonomous tractors have also been technologically demonstrated with large-scale market introduction largely delayed not by technical issues but by regulation, high sensor costs and the lack of farmers’ trust. This will all change by 2022 and sales of unmanned or master-slave (e.g. follow me) tractors will reach $200m by 2026.”

  • Agricultural drones

“Unmanned remote-controlled helicopters have been spraying rice fields in Japan since early 1990s. Autonomous drones have also been providing detailed aerial maps of farms, enabling farmers to take data-driven site-specific action. This development will soon enter its boom years as regulatory barriers lower and the precision farming ecosystems finally comes together. In time, the drone hardware will become commoditized and value will shift largely to data acquisition and analytics providers.Agriculture will be a major market for drones, reaching $485m in 2026.”

  • Robotic weeding implements

“The next generation of these advanced robotic implements … will be using large troves of data to train its algorithms using deep learning techniques. This will become a $380m market by 2026.”

  • Unmanned autonomous robotic weeders and data scouts

“Already, numerous companies and groups have developed and deployed a variety of weeding robots. Whilst most products are in prototype or semi-commercial trail phase, the first notable sales have also taken place aimed at small multi-crop vegetable farmers. This will become $300m market by 2026.”

  • Fresh fruit harvesting

“A limited number of fresh strawberry harvesters are already being commercially trialled whilst fresh apple and citrus harvesters have also reached the level of late stage prototyping. Market adoption will start from 2021 onwards, reaching $230m by 2026.”

To learn more about the report, visit:

http://www.IDTechEx.com