@article{01HWWP2Z7951H8DYS8357P4822,
  abstract     = {{Autonomous agricultural management combats the labor crisis in farming industry and ensures efficient farm operations, whereas variable rate technology has proven to increase resource use efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. This study developed an autonomous robot-driven combined site-specific seeding and nitrogen (N) fertilization solution, whose agro-economic and environmental viability was evaluated in maize. A commercial field in Belgium was scanned using a mobile on-line visible and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy for predicting soil organic carbon (OC), pH, phosphorus (P), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), and moisture content (MC). The six on-line soil layers were fused to delineate a management zone (MZ) map and derive recommendations for site-specific applications. Recommendations for site-specific seeding (SSS) and sitespecific N fertilization (SNF) were implemented with a precision seeder and fertilizer sprayer, respectively, coupled to a field robot. Based on the fertility status, each MZ class was sown with one of the seed rates of 70, 80, 90, 100, 110 kSeeds ha -1 by seeding densely in the highly fertile MZ and vice versa (i.e., Kings approach). On the fourth day after seeding, variable N rates of 87, 81, 75, 67, 61 kg N ha -1 were applied according to two strategies, namely, Kings (KA - feeding the rich) and Robin Hood (RHA - feeding the poor). Results showed that SSS followed by SNF-RHA improved grain yield (9.96 t ha -1), compared to uniform rate (UR) (9.74 t ha -1) and SNFKA (9.52 t ha -1) treatments, hence, increased gross margin by 53 euro ha -1, compared to UR. SNF-KA consumed lower N and seed inputs than SNF-RHA and UR, while SNF-RHA used slightly more N by 1.5 kg N ha -1, compared to UR. This SNF-RHA was more profitable than the other two treatments. SNF-RHA also resulted in comparable yields across different MZ classes, by recommending complementary N doses, which was not the case for the SNF-KA. In conclusion, autonomous robot-driven combined maize SSS and SNF-RHA solution is proven to be technically feasible, while being profitable and time-efficient, allowing farmers to do multi-tasks simultaneously. Future work should evaluate the proposed integrated technology solution on different crops and a large number of fields to generalise the results achieved to promote practical applications by farmers.}},
  articleno    = {{108761}},
  author       = {{Munnaf, Muhammad Abdul and Wang, Yongjing and Mouazen, Abdul}},
  issn         = {{0168-1699}},
  journal      = {{COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE}},
  keywords     = {{Agro-economics,Spatio-temporal soil heterogeneity,Decision support system,Sensing and modelling,Variable rate technology,Autonomous farming,VARIABLE-RATE FERTILIZATION,PHOSPHORUS FERTILIZATION,NITROGEN,MANAGEMENT,MULTISENSOR,QUALITY,ZONES,WHEAT}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{10}},
  title        = {{Robot driven combined site-specific maize seeding and N fertilization : an agro-economic investigation}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2024.108761}},
  volume       = {{219}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}

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