Next-generation precision agriculture machinery is likely to employ technologies emerging from the advanced robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) communities. These technologies typically embed agriculturally robust hardware (e.g. differing designs of robots designed specifically for farming operations) with AI or machine learning (ML)-enabled decision support and control systems that enable robots to carry out specific tasks precisely and efficiently in complex agricultural environments. Novel “intelligent” machines will be designed in the future to perform operational tasks that are otherwise unachievable by conventional equipment and automation systems. Robotic systems are now being adopted across agriculture, with wide scale use in the dairy industry for milking cows, automated weeding in arable agriculture and in controlled environment horticultural production, e.g. to apply UVC radiation (representing the highest energy portion of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation spectrum – up to 280 nm) or other techniques to control fungal diseases. Advanced systems are now entering the horticulture domain to selectively tend and harvest fresh produce crops such as strawberries, broccoli and tomatoes. Longer-term visions for the future of precision agriculture include fleets of fully autonomous machines that will drive user profitability whilst simultaneously reducing the environmental and/or social impacts of farming operations.