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Abstract
Recent agricultural technological developments have generated high expectations for risk management, profitability, and sustainable use of resources in farm operations. For decades, the U.S. agricultural sector has been at the forefront of technology adoption, with automation and mechanization (AM) assisting operations to become more competitive and more efficient while tackling everyday challenges related to managing production risk, lowering labor costs, and addressing labor shortages. Examples abound in row crop production (air drills, combines, planters), fruit and vegetable production (robotic operations in apple and citrus orchards, robotic strawberry harvest), nursery production (plant-moving robots) and dairy operations (automatic milking systems).