Robots Take the Wheel as Autonomous Farm Machines Hit Fields

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Robots Take the Wheel as Autonomous Farm Machines Hit Fields

The first fully autonomous farm equipment is becoming commercially available, which means machines will be able to completely take over a multitude of tasks. Tractors will drive with no farmer in the cab, and specialized equipment will be able to spray, plant, plow and weed cropland. And it's all happening well before many analysts had predicted thanks to small startups in Canada and Australia.

 

[MossRoad]

three years ago....

5 Agro-Bots That Will Change Farming And The Agriculture Industry

 

[Industrial Toys]

One of our Cash Crop Farmers has the Big Gear and fancy GPS stuff. Often you see huge swaths of area not planted. Seems to work about as well and reliably as other modern technology.

 

[bunyip]

Never realised I had been doing it for a while, after I hurt my back used the drone to check the fences and found it was faster as there are no gates to slow me down.
And invite people from the city for a BBQ and the kids get to use the ride on mower, does that count?

 

[drssg]

three years ago....

5 Agro-Bots That Will Change Farming And The Agriculture Industry

I don't follow how bot #3 bales hay. If they could figure out how to eliminate the need for several days of hot dry weather for baling hay, that would *really* be something!

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I don't follow how bot #3 bales hay. If they could figure out how to eliminate the need for several days of hot dry weather for baling hay, that would *really* be something!

How about one with sensors so it can work in the dark and bale all night? That would make you less weather dependent.

 

[drssg]

How about one with sensors so it can work in the dark and bale all night? That would make you less weather dependent.

I don’t know whether hay can be baled at night. There would be moisture from dew packed into the bales, but I don’t know whether that would be enough to make it moldy.

I’ve never produced it myself. I just buy it and feed it.

 

[bunyip]

We don't get dew a lot of the time when baling.
Of course this varies a lot depending on location and the barometer.

 

[MossRoad]

I don’t know whether hay can be baled at night. There would be moisture from dew packed into the bales, but I don’t know whether that would be enough to make it moldy.

I’ve never produced it myself. I just buy it and feed it.

That's the beauty of automation. If it senses all conditions are good, off it goes, regardless of time of day, human had breakfast, ballgame is on TV, etc... it just works when needed.

About the only thing I do not trust about automated stuff is the failsafes. I'm still of the school that any moving machine should have a set of human eyes on it any time it's operating, especially if it's a machine that's not fixed in place and can move about on its own.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

That's the beauty of automation. If it senses all conditions are good, off it goes, regardless of time of day, human had breakfast, ballgame is on TV, etc... it just works when needed.

About the only thing I do not trust about automated stuff is the failsafes. I'm still of the school that any moving machine should have a set of human eyes on it any time it's operating, especially if it's a machine that's not fixed in place and can move about on its own.

Yes, but with remote video that set of eyes can be in a call center in Mumbai!