Developing different robotic platforms for farm operations is vital to addressing the increasing world population. A harvesting robot significantly increases a farm’s productivity while farmers focus on other relevant farm operations. From the literature, it could be summarized that the design concepts of the harvesting mechanisms were categorized as grasping and cutting, vacuum suction plucking systems, twisting and plucking mechanisms, and shaking and catching. Meanwhile, robotic system components include the mobile platform, manipulators, and end effectors, sensing and localization, and path planning and navigation. The robotic system must be cost-effective and safe. The findings of this research could contribute to the design process of developing a harvesting robot or developing a harvesting module that can be retrofitted to a commercially available mobile platform. This paper provides an overview of the most recent harvesting robots’ different concept designs and system components. In particular, this paper will highlight different agricultural ground mobile platforms and their associated mechanical design, principles, challenges, and limitations to characterize the crop environment relevant to robotic harvesting and to formulate directions for future research and development for cotton harvesting platforms.

Herbicide resistance has been studied extensively in agronomic crops across North America but is rarely examined in vegetables. It is widely assumed that the limited number of registered herbicides combined with the adoption of diverse weed management strategies in most vegetable crops effectively inhibits the development of resistance. It is difficult to determine whether resistance is truly less common in vegetable crops or whether the lack of reported cases is due to the lack of resources focused on detection. This review highlights incidences of resistance that are thought to have arisen within vegetable crops. It also includes situations in which herbicide-resistant weeds were likely selected for within agronomic crops but became a problem when vegetables were grown in sequence or in adjacent fields. Occurrence of herbicide resistance can have severe consequences for vegetable growers, and resistance management plans should be adopted to limit selection pressure. This review also highlights resistance management techniques that should slow the development and spread of herbicide resistance in vegetable crops.

Organic vegetable farmers rely heavily on labor-intensive tillage for weed management, which adversely affects soil health and harms beneficial insects that consume crop pests and weed seeds. Using cover crop residues as a weed-suppressive mulch enables some reduction in tillage, and combining this tool with recently developed organic herbicides may further enhance weed suppression in vegetable production. However, organic herbicides may also adversely affect beneficial insects, and their nontarget effects are unknown. Here, we examine the combined impacts of cultural and chemical tools on weed cover while monitoring activity of beneficial epigeal insects and measuring rates of weed seed biological control to assess potential nontarget effects of organic herbicides. In a 2-yr experiment, we compared three cover crop mulch treatments and three organic herbicide treatments (capric/caprylic acid, corn gluten meal, and herbicide-free) in a reduced-tillage system. Organic herbicides led to no reductions in beneficial insect activity nor weed seed biocontrol. In both years, capric/caprylic acid herbicide and cover crop mulches reduced weed pressure relative to a fallow control treatment, whereas corn gluten meal had no effect. In year 2, a combination of cover crop mulch with organic herbicide had the greatest weed suppression relative to the fallow control. Integrated weed management is a perpetual challenge, but our results suggest that organic herbicides used in concert with cover crop mulch may enhance weed control and reduce the need for tillage, with limited collateral damage to natural enemies.

This research was conducted to create a plant-available nitrogen nutrient solution utilizing ruminant bacteria for ultimate use as a liquid nitrogen fertilizer for precision fertigation of vegetable crops. Three hyperammonia-producing ruminant bacteria, Clostridium aminophilum, Peptostreptococcus anaerobius, and Clostridium sticklandii, were cultured anaerobically using five different organic nitrogen substrates to determine their efficiency in producing bioammonium/ammonia (BAA), a term defined here as a biologically produced solution containing both ammonium and ammonia. These bacteria were chosen because of their ability to produce ammonium at rates not experienced by any other bacteria. The five substrates were soy protein isolate (SPI), blood meal, feather meal, dried fish, and yeast extract (Y) used alone and in combination with Y. C. aminophilum and SPI were selected for further experimentation in an attempt to maximize BAA production. These substrates were chosen because they are commonly fed to cattle and they are also used as organic fertilizer amendments. C. aminophilum was cultured with SPI rates from 0.8 g·10 mL^–1 salt solution reaching SPI’s maximum solubility level at 1.6 g·10 mL^–1 salt solution at 0.2 g intervals, and the BAA content was measured every 24 h for 168 h. It was concluded that there was no significant benefit in culturing C. aminophilum with more than 1.0 g·10 mL^–1 for more than 96 h to achieve maximum BAA concentrations.