Book Review 3

Review

Title: Agricultural Robots

Author(s):

Editor(s): Edited by Naoshi Kondo, Mitsuji Monta, and Noboru Noguch

Publisher: Trans Pacific Press, P.O. Box 164, Balwyn North, Melbourne, Victoria 3104, Australia

ISBN 13: 9781920901837

Published: 2006

Pages: 348

Cost: $89.95

Rating (1-5): 4

Submitted By: Wadia, Adil M.

Date posted: November 01, 2011

Good Text for Agricultural Equipment, Mechanisms, and Practices

The variety and diversity of agricultural products manifest themselves in the mechanisms and practices for their cultivation. This book caters to the advancements in mechantronics, computer technology, which leads to the advancement of equipment in the field of agriculture and the subsequent terminology used to classify the equipment as agricultural robots. The editors are very well qualified and have considerable experience in academia. Drs. Kondo and Monta also have backgrounds in industry. The authors for the chapters are also well qualified with academic and research organizations. The book is divided into four sections. The first section focuses on Emerging Agri-Robots and Mechanisms of Agricultural Machinery, and discusses the method and importance of various cultivators, distributors, harvesters, transplanters, and other machines. The second section is devoted to Agri-Vision, which discusses the grading and harvesting of agricultural products along with sticking, underground sensing, weeding, and monitoring of animal, forest, and marine products. The third section is on Agri-Robots Arms and End-Effectors and deals with bagging, grading, grafting, pruning, as well as harvesting of various agricultural products. The fourth section on Vehicle Automation discusses operational support systems for agricultural vehicles as well as the various automatic guidance systems and robots for tractor, tillage, greenhouse, etc. The text in the book is well supported by diagrams, and black and white diagrams and images. Although most images are well represented, some images appear a bit dark, and having them in color would have helped. The book is also accompanied by a CD-ROM, which provides color diagrams and images, as well as videos related to the text and the projects. This would be a very good text for upper level undergraduate and graduate students in the field of agronomy-agricultural engineering-related areas and is also a useful reference for researchers in the field.