Equipment Engineering for Plants

Engineering of equipment and systems to produce plants, including equipment design, manufacture, and use to establish plants, protect plants, harvest plant products, and transportation of agricultural produce. Engineering of components and systems for improved productivity, efficiency, and sustainability.

Mission:

The mission of Section III is to promote the advancement of the engineering science and engineering design through fundamental and applied research related to plant production. The Section acts as an umbrella organization for national committees to promote, co-organize, and coordinate international activities, such as conferences, workshops, and/or networks, pertaining to mechanization, automation and digital farming approaches for modern crop production systems.

Objectives:

• Advancement of new technologies for sustainable plant production; 
• Promotion of new technical solutions to improve mechanization and automation for cropping systems;
• Networking and enhanced communication among participating scientists and engineers from around the world;  
• Providing opportunities for global professional leadership;
• Assessment of social and economic impacts of new plant production technologies on rural communities

Scope:

Considering the objectives defined as above, the scope of CIGR-Section III refers to the following main subject areas:

• Agricultural machinery and power units for field and controlled environment plant production
• Mechanization, automation, robotics (aerial and ground) and autonomous operations for entire crop production cycle (from soil preparation to harvest and transport)
• No-till, reduced till, strip-till and controlled traffic plant production practices (taking into account carbon sequestration indicators and key indicators of decarbonization in agricultural ecosystems)
• Precision agriculture technologies such as automatic guidance and variable rate application of agricultural inputs. This area also includes digital control systems and sensing and data analytics for monitoring the current and predicted condition of plants in field production environment.
• ISOBUS and other standards related to modern plant production equipment

Activities:

Section III organized the 5th CIGR Agricultural Mechanization Next Leaders events, which was held 12-19 July, 2017 in the USA. A total of 25 delegates from 14 countries participated in this 5-day event. The group visited two leading agricultural equipment manufacturers (John Deere, and CNH), toured Washington modern (mechanization-ready) orchards, and Washington State University Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems. In addition to the technical visits, the group attended the 2017 ASABE International Meeting in Spokane, Washington.
Section III compiled and published a booklet entitled “CIGR Agricultural Mechanization Next Leaders” in 2016.  It collected short biographies and contact information of all the participants of the five Next Leaders Events, and has been distributed to the CIGR headquarters, leading agricultural manufacturers around the world, relevant national committees, research centers, and academic institutions, as well as among the participants in the events.
In terms of conference organization, Section III has co-organized both the 4th CIGR International Conference of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR-AgEng2016) held in Aarhus, Denmark (26-29 June, 2016) and the XIX CIGR World Congress held in Antalya, Turkey (22-26 April, 2018).  In addition, Section III has co-sponsored the 5th IFAC Conference on Sensing, Control and Automation for Agriculture (AgriControl 2016) in Seattle, USA (4-17 August, 2016).