Mobile agricultural robots are a real possibility in the near future, says Tony Stentz, an engineer at Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics institute.

They can cope with complex outdoor environments, the price of production has fallen, and society should now see robot laborers as a benefit, not a curse.

Tree-reading machines could record data more often and more thoroughly than humans, providing early warnings of disease and more accurate yield predictions, which could help make the spraying of chemicals more targeted and efficient, said Stentz.