The United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded $3 million in grants to advance the use of robotics in production agriculture.
The four grants are part of the National Robotics Initiative, a federal research collaboration of NIFA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Defense.
“We are on the cusp of seeing incredible advancement in the use of robotics and sensors supporting agriculture in this country,” says Sonny Ramaswamy, NIFA director. “These technologies, which are components of the ‘internet of agricultural things,’ have the ability to make agriculture production more efficient, saving time and money ― benefits that can be passed from producers to consumers.”
