OVERVIEW OF AGRICULTURAL ROBOTS MARKET AND THEIR IMPACT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The article identifies the main trends and players in the agricultural robotics market for collect-ing fruits and vegetables on the open ground. The study noted an increase in investment in the agricul-tural sector at the late stages of innovation projects, revealed the motivation for venture capital invest-ment of firms with the highest level of investment, determined the prospects of investment in robotization of the agricultural sector of the economy. The social and economic effects of robotization in the agricul-tural industry are examined. The study revealed the indisputability of the effectiveness of the use of ro-botic systems due to a significant increase in the rate of economic growth in the agricultural sector ac-companying robots, lower production costs, improve product quality and increase crop yields. The fundamental basis of such effects is the change in the paradigm of mass impact on the regimes and conditions of the vegetative process of plant life to the paradigm of personifying the care of each plant. The article also examines examples of changes in the labor market in countries with advanced agricultural production technologies. The results of the analysis of the capabilities of competing firms developing robotic harvesting equipment for the collection of fruits and vegetables are presented. According to the results of the analysis, global trends in the development of robotics in the agricultural sector were also identified. The analysis allows us to specify the areas of experimental development of relevant and promising agricultural robotics and their investment mechanisms. In addition to the positive effects of introducing robotics into agricultural production, negative consequences are also considered. Including, a possible decrease in the employment of the population of agricultural territories and the related social and demographic phenomena. This study allows us to assess the real level of agricultural robotization and the predicted development indicators of this area. Also, the paper presents the fore-casts of experts in the field of agricultural robotics, predicting a growing demand for the use of industri-al robots of traditional configurations, and assessing future needs for the use of multi-agent robotic systems with autonomous mobile modules. It is shown that the main factor holding back end-to-end robotization of production processes in the agricultural sector of the economy is the insufficient level of development of artificial intelligence systems.