Autonomous Agriculture, Precision Farming & Robotics

Agriculture is a gigantic, global industry that continues to grow in step with populations and increasing demands for food and crop diversity. The challenges facing agricultural industries are large and manifold and, in some cases, very much on the rise. Besides the need to basically increase output, agriculture is facing a foundational challenge and that is how to boost output with less labour.

Labour shortages are a massive issue. Changes in technology and the inevitable changes in social structures and vocational opportunities are driving people in many parts of the world toward urban centre living and technology-based jobs. This has left farmers with more work to do, and this negatively impacts not only production but the physical and mental health of farmers and their families.

Other equally challenging requirements are pressures to increase yield per acre of land, adopt environmentally friendly farming practices, adapt to climate change, reduce emissions and improve sustainability. These are complex, interdependent issues that are not easily remedied.

The adoption of autonomous agriculture is an increasingly worldwide phenomenon. The global autonomous farm equipment industry is a sector that, according to analysis from ReportLinker, is expected to maintain a 13.1% CAGR to become worth over US$135B by 2026 (from an estimated US$65B in 2020).

This tremendous growth shows great excitement in recognition of the confluence of technologies and the many advantages that autonomous technology offers farmers and our collective ability to sustain populations. Autonomous agriculture represents a new era of agricultural efficiency and stewardship.

An autonomous tractor typically performs simple, traditional tractor functions, such as soil tilling, cropping and seeding. An autonomous tractor will be equipped with a GNSS based navigation system, such as GNSS Compass, that inputs position and heading data into the tractor control system. With this data and a predefined mission; for example, ploughing a field, the tractor control system will operate the steering, drive system and farm implements at the correct locations and at the required speed.

Existing manually operated tractors can often be retrofitted to become autonomous. Additionally to the basic systems mentioned above, autonomous tractors and farm equipment will require additional safety sensors that are able to detect humans, animals, obstacles and automatically stop the vehicle to prevent collision and to prevent the vehicle from travelling off course.

Intertwining sensors, machine vision and AI with mechatronics and robotics provides a platform for practically limitless farming applications and a very positive pathway into sustaining crops for future generations. Farmers have the ability to more deeply understand the land, soil and cause and effect on harvest quality and quantity through data acquisition and analysis. Using new knowledge and sophisticated maps enable precision farming techniques to be adopted that are further enhanced by autonomous and robotic agricultural tools.

Autonomous tractors can plough fields day or night and really only need to stop to refuel or change implements. UAVs can undertake repeated missions to examine fields for various phenomena that otherwise require farm workers to be on site. Weeds and diseases can be rapidly identified and eradicated before crops are harmed or lost. Fences can be checked for damage or points where vermin can enter fields. Fruit can be picked at the optimum time and quality can be assessed on-the-fly by autonomous picking robots. These are just a few examples of the tasks that autonomous ag, AI and machine vision can achieve.

Targeted precision farming that uses autonomous farm machinery maximises the use of resources and best use of farmers’ time. Small-scale battery-powered aerial vehicles can be used instead of manned helicopters; and tractors and farm robots can operate without human supervision. Fuel use is minimised as farmers needing to personally travel the farm for inspections is reduced to only when actual on-hand maintenance is required.

Ever increasing research has led to a far deeper understanding of agriculture and the complex processes that lie beneath the notion of putting seed into the soil and later digging it up and eating it.

We now understand much more about soil and how to keep it healthy without resorting to excessive use of chemicals and artificial boosting that, in the long run, are unsustainable. We are gaining an understanding of the complex relationships between soil, weather, terrain, sun, wind, water and humans on our ability to farm successfully in the long term. New knowledge, combined with innovative thinking and the adoption of autonomous technology is providing solutions to farmers’ problems.