Nation's First Agricultural Autonomy Institute Opens at Mississippi State University

Mississippi State University (MSU) has officially opened the Agricultural Autonomy Institute.

This is the nation's first interdisciplinary research center focused on autonomous technologies to enhance on-farm precision and efficiency. The institute will unite researchers at the university interested in robotics, artificial intelligence and remote sensing to increase precision, production and profitability in the ag industry.

According to Alex Thomasson, the institute's director and head of MSU's Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, these technologies have the potential to reduce the impact of labor shortages by making current farm workers more efficient.

"Autonomous systems multiply the productivity of a single farm worker such that they can oversee multiple machines and operations simultaneously," he said. "Overall, the goal of the institute is economic development. We want to attract agricultural equipment companies, and we want to conduct research that leads to technology-based startup companies. We want to develop a new workforce that will have the ability to work in this new world of robotics, mechatronics and computer coding. I really hope to see Mississippi become the Silicon Valley of agricultural autonomy."

The institute includes a 4,800 sq. ft. laboratory space in the Pace Seed Technology Laboratory and a five-acre "Autonomous Acres" proving ground at the R.R. Foil Plant Science Research Center.

It is jointly managed by the university's Office of Research and Economic Development and the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine with support from the Bagley College of Engineering, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and other MSU institutes, research centers and departments.

"Our centers and institutes are structured to bring people and disciplines together to solve problems," said Julie Jordan, MSU vice president for research and economic development. "That's where the magic is made and that's where we can really accelerate the work that's happening in the classrooms, in the laboratories and at the fundamental research level and get it out into the world to solve problems."

Agricultural autonomy research currently occurring at MSU includes how robots can be used to harvest crops such as cotton as well as how cows respond to robotic herders.