New report says agricultural robotics and drones to become $10bn market by 2022

A new report by UK-based consultancy IDTechEx Research has revealed that the use of robotics and drones in the agriculture sector is expected to grow into a $10bn market by 2022.

The ‘Agricultural Robots and Drones 2016-2026: Technologies, Markets, and Players’ report analyses how the technology development and robotic market will impact agriculture business ultra-precision farming.

The agricultural robotics and drones is currently a $3bn market.

The report presents a detailed roadmap of how the robotic technology will enter different facets of agriculture and change the traditional ways of farming, as well as modify the designs of agriculture machinery and become the future of agrochemicals business.

Robotics are already being used in the dairy sector to perform activities such as feed pushing or manure cleaning. Thousands of robotic milking parlours have also already been installed worldwide, which helped create a $1.9bn industry, with a projected growth of $8.5bn by 2026.

In the agriculture sector, robotic technology is put into use as autonomous, next-generation tractors, which will be manufactured using tractor guidance and autosteer technologies.

More than 300,000 tractors equipped with autosteer or tractor guidance will be sold this year, rising to more than 660,000 units a year by 2026, the report stated.

The report also indicated that the vision-enabled and intelligence robots will become $300m market by 2026, autonomous drones could reach $485m in 2026, and the market adoption of fresh fruit picking robots or machines will start from 2021 onwards and will reach $230m by 2026.