HOUSTON - Artificial intelligence and robots are being used to help farmers in California and the technology will eventually hit the Lone Star State, but it shouldn't be right away according to Alex Thomasson, Professor and Endowed Chair in Cotton Engineering at Texas A&M.
Thomasson says, "The thing that is driving the use of sensoring, robotics and artificial intelligence in California are the high value of crops that are typically grown there. Farmers only implement those technologies if it's fairly clear to them they'll get a return of investment."
Thomasson points out that as labor costs increase and the price of technology drops, then the allure to use robotics becomes more attractive. The TAMU professor believes farmers in the Rio Grande Valley will be the first to turn to AI assistance since they have the high-value crops to make it more conducive to using robotics.