Advances in the Use of Robotics in Livestock Production

This chapter discusses developments in robotics in the poultry, pig and dairy sectors and explores the main drivers for these innovative solutions. The concepts of precision livestock farming and robotics engineering are connected on an organizational level and farmers have freedom of choice to work with human labor, specialized service providers and robotic solutions. In practice, the farmer will use a combination of the three, to suit their own preference. Examples of advances in developments are given for the poultry, pig and dairy sectors, as well as indications of future challenges. Predictions from the EU-Robotics topic group and the agROBOfood network are supplied in order to achieve better understanding of the challenges facing the livestock sector.