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The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of robots to contribute to producing food for the growing global population.

Following an introduction which provides an historical background to agricultural production and strategies, this paper considers today's use of robots in traditional agricultural practices. It then introduces precision farming (PF) concepts and discuses the potential role of robots in PF and cites a number of recent research activities. Finally, conclusions are drawn.

This paper shows that robots have so far played a minor role in traditional agriculture but new families of small, intelligent and autonomous robots could conduct a range of PF tasks. These would boost productivity and also yield economic and environmental benefits and contribute to more sustainable food production practices.

This paper puts forward the case for the use of small, intelligent robots in PF and argues that they could contribute significantly to global food production.

This paper aims to provide details of a number of recent and significant agricultural robot research and development activities.

Following an introduction, this first provides a brief overview of agricultural robot research. It then discusses a number of specific activities involving robots for precision weed control and fertiliser application. A selection of harvesting robots and allied technological developments is then considered and is followed by concluding comments.

Agricultural robots are the topic of an extensive research and development effort. Several autonomous robots aimed at precision weed control and fertiliser application have reached the pre-production stage. Equally, harvesting robots are at an advanced stage of development. Both classes exploit state-of-the-art machine vision and image processing technologies which are the topic of a major research effort. These developments will contribute to the forecasted rapid growth in the agricultural robot markets during the next decade.

Robots are expected to play a significant role in meeting the ever increasing demand for food, and this paper provides details of some recent agricultural robot research and development activities.

SILVER, the special interest group on advanced robotics and intelligent automation, is holding a series of meetings on applications in different sectors of industry. The May meeting was held at the Silsoe Research Institute in Bedfordshire. Speakers from Silsoe, as well as from universities and industry, reviewed a number of applications, current and potential, and some systems were demonstrated during the lunch break.

This case study describes the application of robots to an agricultural depalletizing operation. Discusses the reasons for adopting robotics, the requirements of the application and the resulting system performance.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of present‐day and anticipated future applications of robots in the food industry.

The paper discusses the use of robots in the agriculture and farming, processing and packaging and retail sectors of the industry. Examples are given of specific applications and development activities.

Robots are being developed for many agriculture and farming applications but with the exception of milking robots, most still remain at the research/prototype stage. Food processing and packaging is the best developed sector of the industry and most uses entail picking, packing and palletising, although meat cutting is a growing application. Robots are few in the food retail sector although a number of innovative, niche products have recently been launched.

This paper reviews the use of robots throughout the food chain and considers possible future applications.

The purpose of this paper is to review the use of robots in the Japanese food industry, today and tomorrow.

This paper is based on research papers, exhibitions, press releases and interviews.

The paper finds that food palletizing and packaging are the popular applications at present. Food processing and handling are emerging. Agricultural and farming applications are yet to come in spite of intensive on‐going R&D efforts.

This paper presents issues to overcome for the robotization of the industry in the future.

Stakeholders all over the European Union (EU), including academics, local and national authorities, business representatives, civil society, and the EU institutions are interested in creating a better life for citizens inhabiting rural areas. Building up on previous successful policies, including for instance the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and political actions, such as those outlined in the Cork 2.0 Declaration, these stakeholders assessed the current and future challenges of EU rural areas. The EU agri-food sector is not only the backbone of the EU rural areas but it is also a driver of the EU economy, that is, delivering 44 million jobs in the EU and representing 3.7% of EU GDP. The EU is thus the world’s number one exporter of agricultural and food products amounting to 138 billion, in 2017.

Today, the technological progress and the digital economy are transforming the EU economy in a way and speed never seen before; agriculture and food production are no exception. Obviously, the agriculture and the food production activities may have less obvious significance to the smart city but are key in the smart village concept. The ongoing technological transformation of agriculture will certainly enable and influence the design and implementation of any concept of smart villages. The question is therefore complex: How can agriculture and food production contribute and influence the smart villages concept and related policy strategies? This chapter dwells on this issue.

The purpose of this paper is to show the impact of digital agriculture on food supply chain, research trend, emphasis and implications for future research.

The paper analyzes how the digital technology reshapes the production, assembly, transaction, retail and logistics. Impact from each main technological progress is discussed.

First, digital agriculture develops quickly and changes all parts of the food supply chain. Second, while many technological progresses show their impacts in agriculture and food sector, e-commerce and progress of artificial intelligence show its comprehensive impact on the argi-food sector.

The paper shows the technological trend and progress in food and agriculture sector. Researchers focusing on agricultural economics and agribusiness should pay attention to recent developments in the real world, know the recent developments from other disciplines, get more data for empirical research and show the impact of digital agriculture on consumer's preference and social welfare.