INTERVIEW ▶▶▶ Kit Franklin
What next for farm robotics?
The ground-breaking UK Hands Free Hectare project has shown that there are no technical barriers to automated farming. Researcher Kit Franklin talks to Louise Impey about the future of robotics on farms
G
rowing a cereal crop without a single person entering the field sounds like something in a science fiction film, but one researcher has proven it is not only possible using existing technology – it can also be
done cheaply. An army of people, including sprayer operators and
agronomists, would typically enter a field on numerous occasions over a cropping cycle to spray crops, monitor for signs of disease and pests, as well as harvest. Autonomous systems are available, but no one has used them to actually grow a field crop. To prove that it is possible, a group of researchers at UK-based Harper Adams University, led by Kit Franklin, set out to do the seemingly impossible - and achieve a world first. He outlines the challenges as well as what the future may hold for farmers.
When did you first get the idea for Hands Free Hectare? There was no lightbulb moment. Fellow researcher Jonathan Gill and I had been working closely together for six months on the concept, as we knew it was technically possible. Although robotic tractors had been developed, no one had managed to get them
to actually perform the various field operations before. We were determined to show it could be done. We were also aware there were other researchers worldwide
who were going to have a go. That gave us the push we needed and provided the urgency – there are no prizes for coming second in a world-first challenge! It wouldn’t have happened without the help of Precision
Decisions and [its director] Clive Blacker; they gave us commercial, technical and moral support at every stage.
Why did you do it? The use of smaller, more precise machines, which are lighter and able to work in a wide range of conditions without damaging soils, is the way forward for farming. The Hands Free Hectare project gave us an opportunity to showcase the possibilities, explore the options and move the debate on to the next level. Across the globe, the farming industry is being asked to produce
food in a more sustainable way. Robotics have a role in this, but it doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive or too complex for the user. We really wanted to be able to communicate these
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 9 November 2017 ▶ 13
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