A Review of Sustainable Farming with Robotics in Indoor Greenhouse Environments

Current trend projected the global population to increase to 9 billion by the year 2050 which will increase the demand of food production by around 70%. The agricultural sector also supplies produce to bio-based products such as bioenergy and bioplastics which is also increasing the demand for crops. However, the situation is not as simple as planting more crops, as current agricultural practices are not sustainable. Environmental impact and climate changes could be reduced with the utilization of indoor farming could bring about a more sustainable farming solution. Combined with the utilization of precision farming solutions such as IoT based sensors and robotic systems indoor farming could become the next step in sustainable farming. The implementation of precision farming in indoor farming comes with its problems which may cause a challenge in the development and deployment period. This paper serves as the preliminary research for the development of a robotic system to be deployed at Sarawak’s Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC)’s greenhouse.