Dr. John F. Reid of John Deere spoke to a packed audience in Scoates Hall for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Centennial Lecture Series.
Robotics and Automation Technology to Drive Future Agricultural Systems Productivity
Technology Innovation has significantly driven agricultural systems productivity over the last hundred years, primarily through agricultural mechanization. Despite great successes, the next generations will need to achieve significantly greater increases in agricultural systems productivity to meet the global food demand to feed 9 billion people in 2050.
Technologies have been implemented over the last decade provide a glimpse of how automation and control drive further increases in agricultural system productivity. These are early innovations along the pathway of progressive automation that will lead to the integration of robotics into agricultural systems. This lecture will discuss how robotics and automation technologies will be key among other technology innovations that will help drive our future worksite solutions for food production systems.
Dr. John F. Reid is Director, Product Technology and Innovation at the Moline Technology Innovation Center (MTIC), Moline, Illinois. Reid has been with John Deere since 2001. At the University of Illinois, he was recognized internationally for his contributions in robotic applications for off-road equipment. He has 14 patents and more than 140 papers, including 60 refereed journal articles. Dr. Reid received has BS (‘80) and MS (‘82) from Virginia Tech in Agricultural Engineering and his doctorate (‘87) from Texas A&M in Agricultural Engineering.