Global Agricultural Robots and Drones Market Size 2017 by Type (Dairy Farm Robots, Autonomous Tractors, Agriculture Drones (UAV), Weeding Robots and Harvesting Robots), By Region and Forecast 2018 to 2025

The global agricultural robots and drones market size was valued at USD 4.79 billion in 2017 driven by increasing labor cost. Owing to the urbanization in many countries across the world, the labor cost has increased significantly. Thus, to tackle this problem, agricultural robots and drones are already being used in many developed nations such as the US and Europe, have also started to flourish in many developing countries.

                 Annual Average Number of Hired Workers in U.S. Agriculture and Average Wage rates, 2000-2014

Agricultural robots are electro-mechanical devices which can be used to perform various agricultural activities such as seeding, harvesting, pruning, sorting, packing and others. Whereas, agricultural drones perform activities such as spraying, irrigation, surveillance and soil analysis. Using drones, precision agriculture is performed which includes use of big data computing technology for processing the agricultural data and cloud-based software for aerial surveillance and intelligence gathering. Thus, growing varied applications of agricultural robots and drones is significantly impacting the growth of autonomous tractors and drones.

Dairy farm robots held the highest share within the agricultural robots and drones market in 2017. Static milking robots help farmers to monitor milk quality, production and characteristics at individual (animal) level. Using this technology, farmers can monitor animal’s health status and prevent them from diseases thus, eliminating production loss. Milking robots offer flexibility in milking operations, especially the milking time and frequency as compared to the traditional milking process. A rise in the sales of these robots has been seen over the years and is expected grow further during the forecast period as farmers are looking forward to increase their efficiency in milk production.

                        Global Agriculture Robots & Drones Market Revenue, By Type (USD billion)

The autonomous tractors under agricultural robots and drones market are fully automated and driverless with advanced sensors and GPS enabled. They use advanced sensors and GPS enabled navigation system to guide the agricultural machinery. Autonomous tractors provide improved productivity under poor visible conditions, reduce time period for setup and cover skipped areas reducing skips. Also, they are used for spraying hazardous chemicals/pesticides on crops without any human intervention. Owing to this benefits, farmers with large farmlands have implemented autonomous tractors which provide them a tactical approach to harvesting, planting and maintaining the crops. Companies such as Case IH and New Holland have pioneered in autonomous tractor solutions and contribute majorly to the global agricultural robots and drones market.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or agricultural drones for agricultural activities is increasing due to its varied number of applications. Pesticide and fertilizer spraying drones perform the task in less time with much more effectiveness than the traditional spraying methods. Hence, the demand for such drones is growing all over the world, mostly for medium and large scale farms. Along with this, drones are also used for collecting data from remotely located fields providing information such as soil quality. Data mapping drones have spectral cameras mounted on them which produce aerial images of the field and combined with the power of software applications farmers can create vegetation index maps. The global market for agricultural drones was USD 547.4 million in 2017.

China is a major exporter of food in the world as it feeds one fifth of the world population. Thus, agricultural robots and drones market is growing in these nations as large farms drive adoption and development of automation. For instance, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has planned to move in agricultural sector by providing their AI-powered technology which could be used to regulate the food production cycles.

On the other hand, European countries mostly have medium-sized farms which are most suitable for the use agricultural drones. Although, every country have their own regulations on the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). In Japan, 90% of their crop spraying is done using unmanned helicopters. Brexit has caused a huge shortage of farm workers in the UK resulting in higher labour costs. Hence, the use of agricultural robots and drones is expected to surge in the coming years.

All the major agricultural products manufacturers across the world have taken steps to introduce automation in their products owing to the cut-throat competition and broaden their presence in the emerging agricultural robots and drones industry. For instance, Blue River Technology, which is a startup that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automatically identify and spray herbicide on weeds was acquired by John Deere in September 2017. Also, in September 2018, Case IH partnered with AgDNA to leverage latest technologies of cloud computing and artificial intelligence provided by AgDNA in farm operations. Together, they developed an application called ClearVU which can be used for managing agricultural equipment and farming operations from any location.

Additionally, the market for agricultural robots and drones has witnessed huge number of investments by venture capitalist and the national governments across the globe. For instance, Abundant Robotics, who is a pioneer in developing autonomous agricultural equipment, raised USD 10 million for their apple harvesting robots from GV (formerly Google Ventures) in 2017. The investors looking to invest in this market hope to capitalise on the opportunities provided by the growth of food demand across the world and growing technological innovations in the field of agriculture.

The major players in the agriculture robots and drones industry are 3D Robotics, Inc., Case IH, DeLaval Inc., Festo AG & Co. KG, Kinze Manufacturing, senseFly SA (Parrot Group), AgEagle Aerial Systems, FarmBot Inc, Robotnik, AgJunction, Inc, Agribotix LLC, Beijing UniStrong Science & Technology Co., Ltd, L'Avion Jaune, Gamaya SA and Pix4D.

Key segments of the global agricultural robots and drones market

Type Overview, 2014-2025 (USD million)

• Dairy Farm Robots
• Autonomous Tractors
• Agriculture Drones
• Weeding Robots
• Harvesting Robots

Regional Overview, 2014-2025 (USD million)

• North America
  • US
  • Canada
• Europe
  • UK
  • Italy
  • Germany
• Asia Pacific
  • Japan
  • China
• Latin America
  • Brazil
  • Mexico
• Middle East & Africa

Reasons for the study

• The purpose of the study is to give an exhaustive outlook of the global agricultural robots & drones market industry.
• We have been following the commercial drones market. Agricultural drones sector has been gaining immense importance, as a key fragment of the overall commercial drones market.
• Growing world population and ever-growing food demand has driven the agricultural sector all across the world. Hence, new sustainable techniques are required to meet the food demand. All in all, robotics have always been a viable option for the replacement of human labor. Also, various software technologies when integrated with advanced robotics produce optimum results in terms of efficiency.
• While conducting research on the commercial drones at regional and country level, we noticed that the use of drones in not limited to developed economies such as US, but also have started mushrooming in developing economies who have large and medium sized farms and a proper regulatory body at place.

What does the report include?

• The study on the global agricultural robots and drones market includes qualitative factors such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities
• Additionally, the market has been evaluated using the value chain and Porter’s Five Forces’ analysis
• The study covers qualitative and quantitative analysis of the market segmented on the basis of type and region. Moreover, the study provides similar information for the key geographies.
• Actual market sizes and forecasts have been provided for all the above-mentioned segments
• The study includes the profiles of key players in the market with a significant global and/or regional presence

Who should buy this report?

• This study is suitable for industry participants and stakeholders in the agriculture industry, who want an in-depth insight into the types of robotics in agriculture. The report will benefit:
• Executives of agriculture robots and drone manufacturing companies
• Managers within financial institutions looking to publish recent and forecasted statistics pertaining to agricultural robotics
• Venture capitalist looking into investing capital
• Government organizations, regulatory authorities, policymakers and financial organizations looking for innovative solutions in the field of agriculture
• Analysts, researchers, educators, strategy managers, and academic institutions looking for insights into the market to determine future strategies