Citrus farming in South Africa, has become extremely loop-sided in terms of economic
opportunities. The statistics shows that the wealthy, and large-scale farmers simultaneously
control 100% of the international export market and 77.1% of the local market hence,
endangering the prospect of the low and medium-scale farmers.

This research has developed a novel holistic conceptual design of a low-cost autonomous
mobile robot (AMR), capable of aiding small and medium-scale citrus farmers sustain
competitiveness. The AMR conceptual design was facilitated with the use of GENESYS
software for systems integration and architecting. The conceptual design of the AMR has
onboard system capabilities such as real-time monitoring of citrus plants on the field hence,
aiding small scale farmers comply with the stringent regulatory requirements of crop
monitoring and management.

Furthermore, the AMR conceptual design has provided for special features covering the
exhibition of autonomous navigation, detection of objects during navigation, alerting users
using a siren when issues are encountered along its path or when under a threat,
communicating errors when any is encountered and facilitation of auto-homing navigation
when the onboard battery reaches a 30% level of the total capacity. It is also GPS enabled and
possesses a robust onboard database system.

In addition, the AMR design is capable of periodic snapshotting of the citrus crops from the
sides, base and upper views. It utilises this capability to visually inspect the citrus plants for
infections hence, increasing their credibility for export and local markets. The system is also
capable of showcasing the protocols of crop nurturing especially as it affects the treatment
and recovery of infected crops. The novel AMR conceptual design, clustered with diverse
sensory systems, is a major shift in the deployment of low-cost smart technology in the citrus
farming industry for the small-medium farmers.