PHOTO: MATTHIJS VERHAGEN
PHOTO: KOOS GROENEWOLD
PHOTO: MATTHIJS VERHAGEN
FIELD ROBOTS ▶▶▶
Arable farmers certainly are interested in robots. Labour is expensive, and the use of chemicals is under scrutiny, making spot spraying at- tractive.
outdoors on freely accessible plots without human supervision.
A robot is a means to an end Another factor standing in the way of success is that robot manufacturers offer no complete solutions; they often regard their machines as tool carriers. The prevailing belief among some manufacturers is that, after the sale, a crop farmer will attach a machine to the robot him- self, and it should then work. A rather theoreti- cal approach, as it is not that simple in prac- tice. Crop farmers look for a solution to a specific cultivation-related problem, rather than a robot that will replace the tractor. A ro- bot may be a means, but the farmer wants a complete solution. The most commonly re- quested solution is for volunteer crop removal and mechanical weeding, including from
Cameras on a self-propelled sprayer. For a robot, typically with a limit- ed working width, such high-tech is more affordable. Small robot manufacturers however lack development power.
contemporary crop farmers, who want to re- duce the use of crop protection products in onions and avoid spray damage to the crop, for example. So far, robot and tool manufacturers have been working in isolation. There has been little col- laboration in the market, and it is partly for this reason that robot builders do not always offer the market-ready, complete solution that crop farmers are after. Things are beginning to change in that respect, however. Where the manufacturers fail to act, local parties take the initiative. Mechanisation firms have knowledge of electronics, tools, and the local market.
AI becoming a game-changer Some start-ups and manufacturers are now opting for an approach based on a specific ap- plication. Hoe manufacturer Carré will be
A small robot weighs less and poses less or no danger to people, even without extra security. Safety is now a problem with larger robots. In particular, detecting people between crops.
34 ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 27 August 2019
launching its own hoeing robot onto the market in 2020, for example. It is built for the purpose of hoeing, with the advantage of a familiar name accompanying the product. Start-ups such as the Swiss firm Ecorobotix are developing robots with a single purpose, spe- cifically identifying and dabbing the leaves of weeds and volunteer crops, and companies such as BASF have invested millions in them. The Ecorobotix weighs just 130 kilos and has a 2-metre working width. This means a single ro- bot could cover 10 hectares per week. Accord- ing to reports, the robot would definitely be- come available on the market this spring. “It will now be 2020 or 2021,” an employee now tells us over the phone. This is typical of the market. Even so, these types of development signal a sea change. The field robot is now no longer a self-propelled cart, but rather a machine that is able to do something. The crucial factor is that hyper-intelligent soft- ware is all-dominating, and this high-tech soft- ware is self-learning. According to market ex- perts, this is the piece of the puzzle that has been absent from robot technology for the last ten years. The robot or the tool itself is able to learn new things using images captured by cameras, data, and algorithms. This is also re- ferred to as deep learning, and is similar to the technology also found in self driving cars. It enables the robot to learn to assess unexpect- ed situations posed by the environment and to learn on the basis of data. It learns to identify a weed or a volunteer potato plant between crops, and to kill it, of course. Deep learning is a form of artificial intelligence, or AI for short.
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