Automated Crop Production For the $21^{St}$ Century

After ten years of implementing the agricultural automation program in Taiwan, some positive effects and satisfactory results have been recognized by both the agricultural industry and local administrative bureaux. The automation of agriculture is a response to sophisticated demands for production and quality in countries with high labor costs. The development of sensor systems, control systems, precision agriculture systems, and engineering for plant culture systems will determine the degree of automation used for crop production in the 21st century. The engineering system will capitalize upon expertise from physiologists, pathologists, systems analysts, agronomists, horticulturists, computer programmers, economists, crop producers and managers in order to efficiently implement automated crop production.