Integrating autonomous driving technology into agricultural sites… Full-scale implementation of the "smart foliar fertilizer machine for fruit trees"

As agricultural aging and labor shortages intensify, technology for automating foliar fertilization and pest control in fruit orchards has entered full-scale field verification. This is expected to alleviate the burden on elderly farmers, given the high physical demands and skill requirements of these tasks. The Korea Rural Development Administration announced that it has selected "Smart Foliar Fertilizer for Fruit Trees" as a verification project through the "2025 Agricultural Technology Industry-Academia Cooperation Support Project," and is promoting its field application in collaboration with the National Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology. The equipment, currently being developed and verified by Professor Hong Soon-joong's research team at NIAS, consists of a driving unit and an operating unit. The research team has enhanced safety features such as obstacle detection and automatic stopping, improved braking performance, and slope stability, based on field ...