*Reducing Soil Compaction from Equipment to Enhance Agricultural Sustainability DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104489*

comparison between an off-world exploratory robot and a small, swarm agricultural robot tractor is not as outlandish as it might first appear. The sensory apparatus necessary for independent wheel suspension control works as well minimizing soil compaction as navigating unknown terrain. The external manipulators resemble plant tending tools, and the ability to remain on-station and function unmanned is similar. It is conceivable that low-compaction inducing swarm agricultural tractors may look a great deal like our exploratory robots.

Russia was the first to send a rover to the Moon and Mars. While the Mars mission was a failure, the Soviet Moon exploration program laid the foundation for the future robotized space exploration missions. Over 50 years ago, in 1970, the Soviet Lunokhod 1 ("Luna" – Moon), shown in **Figure 22**, had a number of soil compaction sensors, a special wheel to measure traction, and single independent drives on each of its eight wheels for improved mobility [43]. As of now, multiple Mars rovers from the United States and one from China are traveling on the surface of Mars. Modern US rovers, like Perseverance, shown in **Figure 23** [44], combine the essential soil compaction sensors with the sophisticated modern drivetrain solutions, such as an advanced feedback loop from a complex sensor network, photo and video surveillance systems, as well as the use of Big Data concepts to better predict the ambient soil conditions and any possible action protocols during deployment and moving between operation areas.

The off-world researchers operating these rovers build terrain models on Earth, using transmitted data from the operating rovers, which has a 5 to 20 *min* signal delay. They use location information from satellites circling Mars, just like farmers on Earth do for agricultural production. Similar to how military location technologies came into the consumer world, space-based technologies will eventually find their best-use applications on Earth. One particular technology transfer path will be for the highlyaccurate location technologies needed to control small robotic, low soil compactioninducing vehicles for agricultural production. The first half of the 21st century will

**Figure 22.** *Lunokhod 1 moon rover (Kassel, 1971) – [40].*

**Figure 23.** *Perseverance Mars rover (Wikipedia, 2021) – [41].*

continue to see increasing technology transfer from electronics and space industry into everyday agricultural operations.
