Soft robotics for farm to fork: applications in agriculture & farming

Abstract

Agricultural tasks and environments range from harsh field conditions with semi-structured produce or animals, through to post-processing tasks in food processing environment. From farm to fork, the development and application of soft robotics offers a plethora of potential uses. Robust yet compliant interactions between farm produce and machines and will enable new capabilities and optimize existing processes. There is also an opportunity to explore how modelling tools used in soft robotics can be applied to improve our representation and understanding of the soft and compliant structures common in agriculture. In this review we seek to highlight the potential for soft robotics technologies within the food system, and also the unique challenges that must be addressed when developing soft robotics systems for this problem domain. We conclude with an outlook on potential directions for meaningful and sustainable impact, and also how our outlook on both soft robotics and agriculture must evolve in order to achieve the required paradigm shift.