eChapters

9.1 Introduction

The world is facing various challenges, including climate change, population growth, and decreasing fertile land. It is necessary for the agricultural sector to shift towards sustainability and innovation. To revolutionize traditional farming practices, alternative cropping systems and advanced technologies like plant tissue culture in greenhouses are being explored. The goal is to optimize resource utilization, enhance crop resilience, and reduce the environmental impact. By adopting cutting-edge technologies, such as plant tissue culture, crops can be propagated and cultivated within controlled environments like greenhouses, ensuring global food security and meeting the growing population’s demands.

Humankind has always been a perceptive feel for rheological testing, e.g. in physical and visual evaluations of material properties such as hardness, stiffness, flexibility, and viscosity, and their relation to end-use quality characteristics. People often naturally measure the quality of solid foods by gently squeezing them, or liquid viscosity is measured by gently rotating the liquid in its container. These intuitive measurements gradually became formalized into quantitative descriptions of material properties.

Rheology can be defined as the study of how materials deform, flow or fail when force is applied. The name is derivated from Greek word: rheos, meaning the river, flowing, streaming. Therefore rheology means “flow science”. Rheological investigations not only include flow behaviour of liquids, but also deformation behaviour of solids. Normally, to measure rheological properties, the material is subjected to a controlled, précised and quantifiable distortion or strain over a given time and the material parameters such as stiffness, modulus, viscosity, hardness, strength or toughness are determined by considering the subsequent forces or stresses (Dobraszczyk and Morgenstern, 2003). The term rheology was coined by Eugene C. Bingham, a professor at Lafayette College, in 1920, from a suggestion by a colleague, Markus Reiner (Steffe, 1996)

Abstract

Rheological properties of dough from different flours are very important to know about the kneading and modeling process especially for development of bakery products. Rheological testing is helpful to examine the structural and fundamental properties of dough. The basic principle underlying evaluation of rheological properties are mechanical behavior of the dough, in conjunction with the physical structure of the dough, the molecular structure of the protein continuous phase in the dough and with chemical reactions of functional groups. This chapter presents some of the methods currently used in bakery industry for determining the rheological characteristics of the flour and the dough. The instruments such as Farinograph, Mixograph, Extensigraph, Alveograph and Amylograph, which are used for the measurement of dough rheological properties (due to visco-elastic behavior of dough) were described.

3.1. Introduction

Rice is grown in varying geographical locations and climatic situations. Most of the rice area lies between the equator and 400 N latitude and between 700 and 1400 E longitude. It grows well from tropical to sub-tropical warm and temperate climatic regions up to 400 S and 500 N of the equator. However, the highest yields are obtained in the region between 300 and 450 N of the equator. The average yield generally increases as the countries are situated further away from the equator (Chatterjee and Maiti, 1985). In India, rice grows in regions from 80 N to 350 N latitudes under widely varying conditions of the land, rainfall, altitude and climatic conditions. It is grown at the sea level in river deltas as in parts of Kerala, as deepwater in states of West Bengal, Assam and Bihar; at high altitudes of 914 to 1524 m or even more as in Kashmir, and in the slopes of the Himalayas. A temperature range of 200 C to 37.70 C is required throughout the life period of rice crop.

1.1. Introduction: India’s present population, growth rate & projections

India is the second-most populous country in the world after China with its population of about 1.38 billion in the year 2020. The Population Division under the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, of the United Nations, has projected the country’s population to be growing to about 1.50 billion by the year 2030, and 1.64 billion by 2050, of course with its decreasing annual growth rate from 1.04 to 0.25% or so during the period of next thirty years (Fig. 1.1; UNDESA, 2019). The projection says the Indian population will exceed China by the year 2030 even with its decreasing rate i.e. India will be the most populous country by then. As agriculture and allied sectors are the backbone of this country and the largest livelihood source, it support this growing human and livestock population with diversified natural resources and varied agro-climatic conditions. However, the sustainability of agricultural production should be maintained in the face of perturbation and stress on the agro-ecosystem especially the degraded natural resource base and changing climate.

9.1. Risk

Situation in which one knows both possible future and probability outcomes.

River-training works guide and regulate the flow of a river to achieve a stable channel alignment, protect banks, improve navigation, prevent erosion, and reduce flood damage. Rivers naturally change their course through sediment deposition, bank cutting, meandering, and variations in discharge. Engineering interventions must therefore account for hydraulic forces, sediment movement, channel morphology, and long-term river behaviour. This chapter defines river training and explains its objectives, benefits, limitations, and key design principles. It discusses guide banks, groynes or spurs, embankments, revetments, pitching, launching aprons, cut-offs, and related protective works. It also considers structural placement, classification, construction materials, maintenance, and environmental consequences.

Agricultural robotics addresses labour shortages, production demands, environmental concerns and the need for greater operational precision. This chapter examines unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous ground machines, robotic manipulators, greenhouse robots and livestock systems. Enabling technologies include multimodal sensors, computer vision, navigation, control systems and artificial intelligence. Applications extend from land preparation, sowing and crop monitoring to weeding, spraying, irrigation, harvesting and post-harvest processing. Emerging approaches such as reinforcement learning, digital twins, swarm coordination and soft robotics are also explored. Technical reliability, high investment, connectivity, labour displacement and data ownership remain important barriers. Future development must prioritize accessible, affordable and farmer-oriented automation platforms.

10.1 Introduction

The agriculture sector is also transforming through technological intervention and advancements drastically to improve several processes and crop and livestock production systems. These advancements have resulted in minimizing operation and production costs, reduction of environmental impact and optimization overall production cycle. The major issue in the agriculture sector is human-intensive operation and non-availability of sufficient labor on time. The on-field task like fruit harvesting, intra-row weed control which is supposed to be more difficult to perform by the traditional machinery and manually. This has made to think to introduce the autonomous tractors and robotics platform in field operation. Timely activities and treatment play an important role in agriculture and agriculture production. The farmers generally face many problems in performing the task on the field due to various limitations. The cost is one of the main parameters which need to keep the farmer in a competitive market and reduce the cost of operation as low as possible. Also, the growing population demand more and more food which put pressure on the agriculture sector to raise crop production. In this situation, agriculture robots can play an important role to address the challenges in the farms. A robot can professionally perform the task and can automate the tasks which are difficult for manual labor. These are used in the agricultural lands and they are also completely autonomous. These robots are used in several applications in agriculture and can also work autonomously.

The robotic system has been widely used in industrial production and warehouses in an almost controlled environment. In the early 1960s, the agriculture and forestry sector initiated research into driverless vehicles with a focus on automatic steered system and autonomous tractors. Robotics has made an impact on agriculture and forestry since past few years. The purpose of minimizing the damage to the growing zone of soil tends to cater to the application of automatic vehicle guidance. The interest in the development of robotics system in agriculture has led many experts to explore the possibilities to develop more rational and adaptable vehicles based on a behavioural approach.

To cater the increased demand of food, it will be required that farmers are equipped with tools and methods to improve their yields and make informed decisions [1]. Also, with the increase in population, the agricultural land is decreasing by 1 lakh hectares per year and it is required to double the agricultural produce in the next 30 years to sustain the global food requirements.

The improvements in various technological fields like machine learning, navigation, robotics etc. and their applications in agriculture is required to meet this increasing need. One of the factors is to make the farmland ready for sowing the crops, spraying, etc. and this has to be done in a precise and faster manner to address the latter issues. So, the uses of autonomous tractors for such jobs offer accurate, precise and timely preparation of the fields for the cultivation.

12.1 Introduction

Autonomous tractors or driverless tractors are unmanned ground vehicles mainly employed in agriculture for various purpose like preparation of land for the crops, harvesting, spraying, and other agricultural purposes. They are equipped with GPS, autopilot, cameras, lasers (LiDAR), and other wireless technologies navigation and mutual coordination and offer saving of both the manpower and time. These autonomous tractors can be programmed to navigate their paths through the fields and are designed to avoid the obstacles while doing their jobs. These tractors automate various laborious field jobs and also minimize human intervention in the process.

These autonomous machines are regarded to revolutionize the agriculture industry and offer safety, sharing of resources, economical solutions per square area of land, etc. Several industries like Jhon Dheere, AgraBots, EcoRobotix, RowBot, etc.

Precision Agriculture is fulfilled by adapting suitable monitoring and analysis mechanisms. Autonomous monitoring is getting a new dimension using robots. Agriculture is the trending area to attract new professionals, investors and new companies. The technology in agriculture is not only increasing the yields but the time and labour. This chapter illustrates the use of robotics in crop monitoring and analysis.

8.1 Introduction

Monitoring of agriculture farm enhance the productivity. Evolution in technologies in the era of agriculture brought a lot of innovations. Among these innovations robots are one of them to be implemented in agriculture to enhance profitability and reliability with minimum human resource. At the same robots were deployed to monitor the farming land from weeds and try to remove these. Due to which uses of agrochemicals reduced down the time line. When precision farming came in to the pictures robots are the best use cases. In fig. 8.1 autonomous mechanical robots are shown, which are used to remove the weed from farming land. Robots are equipped with sensor modules, actuators and IoT enabled which makes the things very easy to control from remote area with commands.

Agriculture is the backbone of India. Evolution in technology is bringing new dimensions of conventional agriculture. Looking towards the current food demands it is very crucial to maintain the food supply. According to UN (United Nations), by 2050 the world population will be increased to around 9.3 billion which increases the food need. As the technology in agriculture evolving it seems that we could be able transform conventional farming to unconventional and traditional to modernization by the help of agriculture robots. Agri-bots can be autonomous with human intervention that could perform the task precisely. Chapter illustrates the applications in agriculture seeding. These robots are efficiently used in crop seeding.

7.1 Introduction

The very first agriculture robots were used in the early 1920s along with autonomous vehicle development.

Agro robots are becoming an ongoing pattern in farming with lots of research advancement and business models [1]. Agrarian robots have huge focal points as far as adaptability, flexibility and ecological advantages contrasted with customary horticultural apparatus and speak to an extraordinary resource for cutting edge precision agribusiness. Numerous advances in machine vision with imaging and otherworldly cam-periods for distinguishing weeds, vermin and infections, supplement inadequacies in soil or plant leaves have given profound applications to be mounted on independent vehicles for exploring soil and crops and for additional downstream choice help and control [2]. The mechanical network has additionally made earth shattering upgrades and advancements as far as utilizing a far reaching working framework, the Robotic Operating System (ROS), just as applying strong stages and route calculations.

Comparable to horticultural robots, the attributes of the central framework of robots are the lightweight, little size and lively self-governance [3]. Lightweight implies that the vehicle requires lower impetus vitality and incites less soil compaction while simultaneously the vehicle must be little for security reasons, for accomplishing more noteworthy accuracy during execution of assignments and having more maneuverability inside the field to limit turning delays.

Weed control in agriculture disturbs the farming. Weed management and control essentially increase productivity of the farm. Autonomous robots for weed control systems are gaining a lot of attention. Adaptability of effective weed control robots has the potential to bring evolution in the areas of weed species, genetics and climate conditions. Weed control is one of the major challenges in agriculture. Removal of weeds from farming land required a lot of human effort. To minimize the weed growth pesticides and chemicals are used which is very harmful. In order to make this process easy and reliable robots are used nowadays. Robots are specially designed to detect the weeds and remove them within a stipulated time period. Robots are programmed using various algorithms to do this task in an efficient way without human efforts. This chapter illustrates the use of modern robots in weed control to help the farmers to gain maximum profit and healthy concerns without using chemicals to do so.

10.1 Introduction

Over the time, weed control in a farming land has been an issue. Evolution in technologies in the area of agriculture brought a lot of innovations. Among these robots are one of the innovations to be implemented in agriculture to enhance profitability and reliability with minimum human resource. The robots are deployed to monitor the farming land from weeds and try to remove these. Due to which uses of agrochemicals reduced down the timeline. When precision farming came into the picture robots are the best use cases. An autonomous mechanical robot was used to remove the weed from farming land. Robots are equipped with sensor modules, actuators and IoT enabled which makes the things very easy to control from remote area with commands [4].

Agriculture irrigation is a crucial part of precision farming. An irrigation system required a lot concentration to grow the plant healthy. A smart irrigation system in an agriculture farm leads to maximum profits in terms of yield. Integrating technologies like IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence) in irrigation accomplish to the human efforts. Controlling of water pumps, sprinklers seamlessly draws the kind attention of farmer to adapt these technologies in their day today farming schedules. This chapter illustrates a wide variety of robots used in irrigation to achieve maximum yield and minimizing water loss. The high scalability and reliabilities of these autonomous robots replicates the potential of agriculture 4.0 in coming future. Advanced robots deployed on the field to monitor the land and pass the information to the controllers and further to the water pumps. Here case study of robots is highlighted to reduce water losses by using nozzles mechanisms.

9.1 Introduction

Agriculture faces many environmental challenges. As far as the irrigation in agriculture is concerned it is very essential to maintain soil hydrated and water level in the field. Robotic irrigation enables autonomous irrigation from remote access [3]. Smart irrigation technique enables a lot of water saving. So robotic in agriculture plays a very crucial role in it [2]. In order to avoid water losses agro robots adapt smart irrigation techniques like droplet irrigation and sprinkling. To maintain sustainability, water resource management is required. Technologies like drones, smart sprinkler based on IoT, smart droplet irrigation used across the globe. These technologies have the greatest impact on productivity and sustainability of the environment as well. As far as the country India is concerned, due to diversity in geographical infrastructures rainfall changes from state to states. So, a wide range of water diversity is found to grow agricultural foods. For example northeast and southern part of India due to heavy rainfall paddy cultivation is preferred since it requires a lot of water. Whereas the northern part of India observe a moderate rainfall, so vegetables and other agriculture foods get cultivated. At the same there are certain states like Rajsthan, Gujrat where very less rainfall occurs through varieties of crops related to dal.

Milk revolution with change in technology is gaining attention in India. Robotic milking reduces labour and increases efficiency irrespective of large dairy farms. A typical system requires a large camera- and spray-system robot. When activated to apply the disinfectant, the robot sends a six-foot- long pipe with the sprayer under the cow. These floor-mounted robots require expensive installation into the floor of the milking parlour, as well as fencing for employee protection.

15.1 Introduction

Mechanical draining has increased broad acknowledgment, especially in Western Europe, as an approach to lessen labor on dairy ranches, increment creation per cow, and improve the way of life of dairy ranch families draining 40 to 250 cows (De Koning, 2010). The developing ubiquity of this innovation is obvious in its fast pace. In 2009, the evaluated number of automated dairy ranches overall was 8,000 (De Koning, 2010). Only 6yr later, Barkema et al. (2015) proposed that this number had dramatically multiplied to 25,000 dairy ranches around the world. The level of groups utilizing this technology is most noteworthy in Scandinavian nations and the Netherlands (Barkema et al., 2015). Broad selection in these nations proposes in any event a proportion of accomplishment in helping dairy ranchers accomplish more noteworthy work productivity and a superior way of life, yet field experience recommends that wide variety exists in the measure of work spared and in the general fulfilment of early adopters.

Robots can replace human efforts in the future. Discovery of robots in agriculture is going to accelerate the growth of agriculture 4.0. Nursery planting needs robust and profitable solutions. Nursery plants deals with the direct consumer, which is the primary stage of agriculture. An intensive care is required to look after the nursery plant before going to be planted. Now a days robots are used to monitor the plants, essentially to maintain the health standard of a plant. This chapter illustrate the applications of the robots in nursery planting.

6.1 Introduction

Nursery is the primary stage where seeds are grown in to the young plants. Nursery planting involves many activities like seeding, potting and monitoring. The process required high attention to look after at this stage [1]. As the food demand is increasing day by day, it is necessary to adapt unconventional way of farming. Bringing robots in to the farming will bring a lot of changes in the traditional agriculture. The robotics in agriculture is not new, it has started with evolution of autonomous vehicles [2]. The usage of robots are increasing exponentially. So the researcher and scientist also started use of robots in agriculture. They found a phenomenal result in term of easy to handle the agro tasks, seeding, weeding, automatic irrigation and harvesting. It draws the farmer attention down the line [3].

Harvesting is one of the most labour intensive jobs in agriculture, and by implying the robotics in harvesting, the quantity of the harvested yield can be readily increased, thus saving a lot of time and human resources. This also aids in reducing the farm to market transportation times. The use of robotics can also reduce the seasonal requirement of the manual labour and thus reduce the recurring costs.

13.1 Introduction

The incorporation of robotics in agriculture has proved to be advantages for the farmers and thus for the economy. The automation of various agricultural processes led to the reduction of the operational costs and also in the reduction of the labour required. A possible solution to address the problems of labour availability and scaling up the harvesting of the crop is the incorporation of robotics.

The development of the civilisation humans have tried to domesticate the animals. Initially dogs were known to be the first pet domesticated by humans followed by the domestication of other animals like cattle, horses, sheep etc.

14.1 Introduction

When humans started to domesticate the animal, they have tried several ways to control them. Generally these animals are released in free space to graze and one of the known problems is to prevent them from overgrazing. So building a fence is one of the ways to limit their movement is one viable solution, but building a fence is limited to a smaller area. Since these animals are locked in a large number, so building a bigger fence and moving it every time for grazing is not viable. It can be observed in the history of humankind as that civilisation progressed the use of Shepherd dogs has been one of the widely accepted. Shepherd dogs not only help in shepherding and herding but also prevents these livestock from wolves

The incorporation of robotics will not only automate the process intelligently but also keep a vigil on various aspects of livestock management. In recent years there has been a substantial development in this regard. The development of robotic dogs for shepherding and herding purposes has found a lot of increment developments. SPOT developed by Boston dynamics and SwagBot developed by University of Sydney, are well-known robots developed in recent times for the purpose.

These robots are equipped with multiple sensors like LiDAR, gas and heat sensors, high-resolution cameras etc. The array of sensors are used to capture the data in real-time and is then used for decision-making processes. Also these reports are built to be rugged and can navigate on a variety of terrains.

In the wild (forests) plants grow by their own, but in agriculture because of limited space they don’t have freedom to grow in a much natural way. This can lead to structural irregularities in their growth, and can hamper the overall plant’s development and this will impact the produce or crop yield. To deal with such constraints and to boost the crop production, the methods of thinning and pruning provide efficient ways to train the growth of young plants and maintain the health of grown-up plants.

11.1 Introduction

In agriculture, thinning means the removal of some plants or some parts of plants that show inconsistent growth and or are damaged by some pest or disease, without removing the whole tree or plant. The selective removal of branches, buds or roots is termed as pruning [1]. If the plants are overcrowded in a confined space, the overall health of the crop decreases due to the competitive stress from the neighbouring plants. Thinning and pruning is done to improve the growth rate or health of the plants by decreasing the competitive stress. Thinning and pruning in agriculture is the sensible removal of plant parts such as flowers, shoots, its branches or other parts to correct or maintain that structure of the tree and control be directed growth of the crop. This practice covers the precise removal of the unhealthy and obstructive part of the plant branch, leaves, fruits, buds, fruits, etc. Pruning improves the quality and longevity of the crop, leading to quality produce and increased yield of the field. This also helps in increasing the size of the fruit as it increases the availability of nitrogen required for growing and stimulating growth of the crop. There are several factors that influence the amount of pruning to be done, i.e., age of the plant, condition of the bark and wood, growth characteristics, whether cup crop/plantation is permanent or seasonal [2]. Pruning is done for controlling the size of the plant, controlling the structure makeup of the plant, controlling and improving the light distribution of the plants by the selective removal of leaves to improve the quality of the fruits, removing the diseased parts of the plant and to regulate the fruit crop and increase the life of the tree.