Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, is a manufacturing technology that constructs objects by sequentially adding material layer by layer. AM encompasses a range of different techniques capable of working with very different materials from metals and alloys to polymers and composites. As an advanced fabrication technology, AM is characterized by strong design flexibility, the ability to create intricate structures, and cost-effectiveness when compared to conventional fabrication methods. AM technology is widely employed in various sectors such as aerospace, healthcare, and industrial manufacturing, and its application is increasingly expanding into agricultural manufacturing. This study provides a comprehensive review and analysis of the current status of AM technology applied in the five main agricultural manufacturing aspects such as the application of AM technology in the manufacturing of agricultural equipment parts, its use in agricultural sensors, its role in the utilization of agricultural waste, its application in the field of plant growth mechanisms and in phytoremediation tissues. The current existing problems of AM technology and future development trends are also included to provide the implications for researchers. The adoption of AM technology in agriculture offers significant advantages, including enhanced production efficiency, cost reduction, innovation facilitation, and environmental protection. From initial prototyping to custom production today, AM technology provides more flexible, efficient and sustainable solutions for agricultural manufacturing. Especially in the fields of agricultural machinery, planting facilities and agricultural biomaterials, the application of AM technology has shown great potential and advantages. With the continuous advancement in technology and the reduction of costs, AM technology will become more popular and play a more vital role in agricultural manufacturing. In the future, we can foresee that AM will realize the manufacturing of agricultural products with higher precision, a more complex structure and more functions, providing more intelligent and personalized solutions for agricultural production. As such, it is emerging as a critical driving force in the advancement of precision agriculture.

Design optimization and test for a pendulum suspension of the crop sprayer boom in dynamic conditions based on a six DOF motion simulator

The application of robotics has great implications for future food security, sustainable agricultural development, improving resource efficiency, reducing chemical pesticide use, reducing manual labor, and maximizing field output. Aiming at the problems of high labor intensity and labor shortage in the fields of pesticide application, weeding, and field information collection, a multifunctional and electric field management robot platform is designed, which has four switching steering modes (Ackermann steering, four-wheel steering, crab steering, and zero-radius steering), and its wheel-track can be automatically adjusted. Commonly used spraying booms, weeders, crop information collectors, and other devices can be easily installed on the robot platform. A multi-sensor integrated navigation system including a satellite positioning system, an RGB camera, and a multi-line lidar is designed to realize the unmanned driving of the robot platform in a complex field environment. Field tests have shown that the robot can follow the set route, and tests under simulated conditions have indicated that it can also dynamically correct paths based on crop rows by using a visual system. Results from multiple trials showed that the trajectory tracking accuracy meets the requirements of various field management operations.

Conventional continuous pesticide application remains prevalent in agriculture, but its limitations in addressing the spatial–temporal variability of biotic stressors have led to excessive chemical inputs and inefficiency. The emergence of precision agriculture has catalyzed significant advancements in variable-rate spray systems to optimize agrochemical deployment through real-time modulation. This technology demonstrates critical advantages in minimizing the environmental footprint while maintaining crop protection efficacy. Our systematic review analyzes three foundational variable-rate spray architectures—pressure-regulated, flow rate-regulated, and pesticide concentration-regulated mechanisms—evaluating their maturity and implementation paradigms. Pressure-regulated technology relies on the pressure–flow relationship to achieve regulation, but there is a narrow range in flow regulation, atomization stability is insufficient, and there are other defects. Flow rate-regulated technology achieves precise control through the dynamic adjustment of the nozzle orifice area or Pulse-Width Modulation duty cycles, but this technology faces mechanical wear, a nonlinear flow–duty cycle relationship, and other challenges. Pesticide concentration-regulated technology is centered on real-time mixing, which can avoid the residue of chemicals but is highly dependent on fluid characteristics and mixing efficiency. This study proposes improvement paths from the perspectives of hardware optimization, control strategy integration, and material innovation. Through the summary and analysis of this paper, we hope to provide valuable references for future research on variable-rate spray technology.

Autonomous navigation is a core enabler of smart agriculture, where path planning and trajectory tracking control play essential roles in achieving efficient and precise operations. Path planning determines operational efficiency and coverage completeness, while trajectory tracking directly affects task accuracy and system robustness. This paper presents a systematic review of agricultural robot navigation research published between 2020 and 2025, based on literature retrieved from major databases including Web of Science and EI Compendex (ultimately including 95 papers). Research advances in global planning (coverage and point-to-point), local planning (obstacle avoidance and replanning), multi-robot cooperative planning, and classical, advanced, and learning-based trajectory tracking control methods are comprehensively summarized. Particular attention is given to their application and limitations in typical agricultural scenarios such as open-fields, orchards, greenhouses, and hilly slopes. Despite notable progress, key challenges remain, including limited algorithm comparability, weak cross-scenario generalization, and insufficient long-term validation. To address these issues, a scenario-driven “scenario–constraint–performance” adaptive framework is proposed to systematically align navigation methods with environmental and operational conditions, providing practical guidance for developing scalable and engineering-ready agricultural robot navigation systems.

Dynamic behavior modeling and parameter optimization of the spray boom based on multi-body vibration were developed to study the influence of the boom sprayer’s motion in a complex working environment on the dynamic behavior of the spray boom. First, a geometric continuous model of spray boom vibration was established considering the influence of the boom sprayer body and boom suspension. Then, the dynamic behavior of the spray boom under step excitation was studied on a SWAN3WP-500 self-propelled boom spray experimental platform. The time-domain response of spray boom movement was characterized using a multi-channel dynamic test system, and the simulation results of the geometric continuous model were verified. The correlation coefficient between the simulated and experimental results is 0.917, and the maximum relative error is 12.16%. Finally, the effects of boom sprayer speed, spray boom length, and spray boom cross-section shape on spray boom vibration were analyzed through the geometric continuous model. (1) The amplitude and period of vibration at the extremity of the spray boom gradually decline with a rise in boom sprayer speed. (2) The amplitude and period of vibration at the extremity of the spray boom gradually increase when the unilateral spray boom is shorter than 5 m but slowly decrease when it is longer than 5 m. To avoid excessive static elastic deformation of the spray boom, the length of the unilateral spray boom should be controlled within 6 m. (3) A reasonable cross-sectional shape can improve the spray boom vibration, and the spray boom with a type B cross-section can better inhibit the vertical vibration of the spray boom under the same cross-sectional area.