# A Smart and Mechanized Agricultural Application: From Cultivation to Harvest
## 2 Literature Review  
This study focuses on the most efficient crop-harvesting methods in farmlands (tomato assumed as a case study). In this regard, studies and general perspectives about the new generation of agriculture in the literature are presented. As is known, there are many types of sowing, monitoring, and harvesting in agriculture. Although traditional methods are successful in growing crops, they have many disadvantages. In traditional agriculture, farmers cannot prepare the soil properly because they only use hoses after burning the bush and clearing the field. In addition, they cannot get fertile results as they can only scratch the earth and mix the ashes into the soil [12]. The burning method damages the soil, and as a result, erosion is exacerbated as this burnt soil is left bare. Furthermore, roots cannot go deep enough to absorb water and mineral salts from the soil, and thus water (the most important and critical resource) is used inefficiently. The soil can become very poor in a short time due to the usual techniques applied incorrectly and inefficiently, and to solve this problem (i.e., the soil becomes fertile again), the field must be left fallow for two or three years [13]. Since the farmers cannot stay idle during this period, they move to another field, which is called alternating cultivation. As a result,large-scale lands will not be used, and bountiful crops will not be produced. Mechanism systems blended with new technologies can be the solution to these problems. On the other hand, it is also very important to harvest the crops efficiently, on time, with the maximum amount and quality and least use of energy and resources. However, traditional methods consume resources excessively, the rate of poorer-quality crops is higher, the profit rates are not fully maximized, and most importantly, they cannot offer sustainability [14]. These problems can be resolved with the transition to modern agriculture. In this regard, the IoT and mobile robots provide great contributions. In the solution to these complex situations, software techniques and methods are needed together with new technologies. According to this, artificial-intelligence-based smart methods are becoming more important day by day. In solving this type of complex problem, learning or heuristic-based solutions may be especially useful--we should not forget that some problems in this area may not have a deterministic solution. Finally, taking into account increasing human population and food demand, these problems will have dire consequences. For the reasons stated, we can conclude that intelligent agriculture is an essential requirement. The IoT and similar technologies such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs) [15], which have become popular in recent years, are used to meet the needs in this field. The IoT in agriculture means using sensors and other devices to turn every element and action involved in farming into data [16]. Scientists believe that the IoT will lead the agriculture sector to agriculture 4.0 and even agriculture 5.0 in the future [17; 18]. This new philosophy, data-driven agriculture, is also expressed in the literature with several different names: Agriculture 4.0, digital farming, or smart farming [19]. This smart farming can be combined with the precision agriculture concept in data management, leading to more accurate and efficient results [20]. In traditional methods, farmers had to go to the farmland and check the condition of their crops, and they would decide based on their experience whether it was time to harvest. New technologies such as the IoT are very useful in solving these problems, and more, to achieve greater efficiency, sustainability, and availability rates. Additionally, in traditional methods, the experienced farmer had a higher success rate, so younger farmers had a lower chance at succeeding. However, thanks to these new technologies, this problem can now be eliminated. On the other hand, savvy farmers can also adapt to new methods.