A contract has fust been awarded for an automation project that was supported by the...

According to the AI & SOCIETY article1, legal structures may form barriers to, or enablers of, adoption of precision agriculture management with small autonomous agricultural robots. The article develops a conceptual regulatory framework for small autonomous agricultural robots, from a practical, self-contained engineering guide perspective, sufficient to get working research and commercial agricultural roboticists quickly and easily up and running within the law. The article examines the liability framework, or rather lack of it, for agricultural robotics in EU, and their transpositions to UK law, as a case study illustrating general international legal concepts and issues. It examines how the law may provide mitigating effects on the liability regime, and how contracts can be developed between agents within it to enable smooth operation. It covers other legal aspects of operation such as the use of shared communications resources and privacy in the reuse of robot-collected data. Where there are some grey areas in current law, it argues that new proposals could be developed to reform these to promote further innovation and investment in agricultural robots. Therefore, the lack of a proper legal framework in place for the automation project may be the reason why the elected officials warned the project manager that the project cannot proceed, as they may face legal uncertainties, risks, or challenges that could affect the project’s feasibility, legitimacy, or acceptability. References: AI & SOCIETY article1