[I-RIM ML] Agronomy Special Issue on "Sensing and Perception Systems for Situational Awareness of Agricultural Robotic Vehicles"

[Annalisa Milella]

Agronomy Special Issue on "Sensing and Perception Systems for 
Situational Awareness of Agricultural Robotic Vehicles"

Dear Colleagues,

The last few years have seen an increasing technological transfer from 
robotics to agriculture to develop intelligent vehicles that can 
significantly enhance the sustainability of agricultural systems. 
Robotics technology has been recently proven to be especially valuable 
for the development of in-field high-throughput phenotyping platforms 
supporting precision farming applications, to improve natural 
resource-saving and health and safety conditions of the workforce, as 
well as to increase productivity and competitiveness of agricultural 
production. In this respect, accurate and robust sensing and perception 
systems, taking advantage of the latest research advances in the field 
of machine learning and deep learning techniques, play a critical role 
in addressing unsolved issues such as safe interaction with workers and 
animals, controlled traffic applications, crop row guidance, surveying 
for variable rate applications, and situation awareness in general.

This Special Issue of Agronomy (impact factor = 2.259) invites original 
submissions addressing the study and development of sensing and 
perception systems to endow an agricultural vehicle with cognitive 
abilities to safely navigate and interact with its operational 
environment, with workers or other robots, as well as articles dealing 
with the study and development of novel data analysis techniques for 
crop assessment, recognition of condition using data acquired by 
agricultural robotic platforms, and any other relevant application of 
such technologies in crops and animal husbandry. Papers providing 
experimental evidence in the field and involving the integration of 
different disciplines such as engineering, mathematics/statistics, 
occupational safety and health, human–machine interface and ergonomics, 
and environmental and computer science are particularly encouraged. 
Contributions focusing on the development of agricultural robotic 
technologies to achieve the United Nations sustainable development 
goals, such as securing healthy and sustainable food and safe working 
conditions, and overcoming and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic are 
welcome.

Keywords:

- Sensor and robot networks in agriculture
- Multisensor and data fusion
- Machine learning and deep learning from sensor data in agriculture
- Environment mapping and classification
- Robot localization and navigation
- In-field phenotyping sensors and vehicles
- Safe human–robot interaction in agricultural applications
- Sensors and vehicles for in-field pest detection and management
- Harvesting automation
- Cooperative agricultural robotics
- Safety and health in agriculture
- Food security

Deadline for manuscript submissions: January 1, 2021.

For submission details, please visit: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy/special_issues/Agricultural_Robotic_Vehicles
Guest Editors

Dr. Eugenio Cavallo
Dr. Roberto Marani
Dr. Annalisa Milella

-- 
Dr. Annalisa Milella
PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Researcher
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems
for Advanced Manufacturing
National Research Council of Italy
via Amendola 122/D-I, 70126 Bari, Italy
Tel: +39 080 592 94 53
E-mail: annalisa.milella at stiima.cnr.it
https://sites.google.com/view/annalisamilella/