The First International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots (SIMPAR 2008) was held during November 3-6, 2008, in Venice, at Telecom Future Center, with a special session held in Padua, in the Archivio Antico of the university. The SIMPAR Conference was promoted to o?er to a selected number of - searchers the possibility to discuss, in a highly stimulating atmosphere, how to identify andsolvethe key issues necessaryto ease the development of robotso- ware, andboosta smoothshifting ofresults fromsimulationto realapplications. Novel robotics applications driven by society and industry call for the dev- opmentofsystemsofever-increasingcomplexity.Systemswithslidingautonomy, humanoid robots, distributed robots, and mobile sensor networks are just a few examples of this exciting area.But unfortunately, steady improvements in robot hardware have not been matched by corresponding advancements in robot so- ware. Besides fundamental open problems still waiting for sound answers, the lack of broadly accepted and reusable development tools, libraries, standards, and algorithms is one of the main technological obstacles towards the e?cient development of this new generation of robotics applications. Hence, simulationenvironmentsabletoreplicatearobot'ssensingandmotion abilitiesandtheirinteractionwiththephysicalworldareplayinganessentialrole in reducing the development time and cost of large-scale autonomous systems. Notwithstanding, their use is still regarded by many as suspicious. Seamless migration of code from general-purpose simulators to real-world systems is still ararecircumstance, duetothecomplexityofrobot, world, sensors, andactuators modeling. The above challenges drive the quest for next-generationdevelopment methods in robotics. We are convinced that SIMPAR has succeeded in giving a ?rst answer to this search, and it can be followed by proper scienti?c and engineering actions in the near future

This book provides a comprehensive review of key advances in the use of robots in agriculture. Chapters summarise developments in location and guidance systems, GPS technologies, machine vision, navigation, actuation, communication and control technologies. The second part of the book discusses deploying these techniques to save labour, improve precision, speed and efficiency in agricultural operations. Chapters review the state of the art on the use of agricultural robots in planting, crop monitoring, spraying, irrigation and weed management. There are also reviews of orchard management and harvesting, harvesting of soft fruit and in-field grading of harvested produce. Other chapters cover the application of robotics in the livestock sector.

This collection features four peer-reviewed reviews on Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in agriculture. The first chapter reviews developments in the use of AI techniques to improve the functionality of decision support systems in agriculture. It reviews the use of techniques such as data mining, artificial neural networks, Bayesian networks, support vector machines and association rule mining. The second chapter examines how robotic and AI can be used to improve precision irrigation in vineyards. The chapter pays particular attention to robot-assisted precision irrigation delivery (RAPID), a novel system currently being developed and tested at the University of California in the United States. The third chapter reviews the current state of mechanized collection technology, such as the development of harvest-assist platforms, as well as the possibilities of these machines to incorporate artificial vision systems to perform an in-field pre-grading of the product. The final chapter explores the emergence of the automated assessment of plant diseases and traits through new sensor systems, AI and robotics. The chapter then considers the application of these digital technologies in plant breeding, focussing on smart farming and plant phenotyping.