PHOTO: JAMIE GRANT
PHOTO: JEREMY JONES
Not complicated Operating the robot is not complicated. “If it is completely shut down, you flick an isolation switch and use a few push buttons. Once it is on, you can do it all via an iPad. If it is in sleep mode – not completely shut down – you can start it up from the iPad. Then you can start it from any distance.” A tank gauge on the iPad shows what percentage of chemicals are left in the tank. “If it gets down to 10%, it will alert you on the iPad” he explains. “We haven’t got an automatic refilling system yet. It is still a little bit down the track, but that’s what will happen eventually.” The cotton farmer explains that the Swarm- Farm robot can be towed around easily. “We use an A-frame that goes on the front of it and his has some free wheeling hubs. We just put the hubs down and use our Toyota to pull it.” The robot itself has a 75 horsepower diesel en- gine. “Everything runs on hydraulics, including the wheel drives and the boom spray pump.” Dalby Rural Supplies in Dalby supplied the WEED-IT system. Jeremy Jones, precision ag specialist, explains that the robot on Jamie’s farm is one of the bigger SwarmFarm robots. “It is very useful on terrace farms for mowing and for spraying”, he says. The robot is a good fit for the optical sprayer system, says Jeremy. “This one is moving at 10 kph and has a 1000 litre tank. It is only spraying the weeds so it can practically run for most of the day without having to refill. The machine is in con- stant spray mode. When farmers buy a 12 me- ter bar and use it on their tractor, they are just clocking up tractor hours. And it ties up a man. While this is something a robot can do over and over on the farm.” He explains that the SwarmFarm robot can accommodate different technologies. “They have built a robot that companies like ours can use with our technol- ogy on the back. They have developed the platform and we have been able to hook our spraying system on to it.”
Own mapping system Although WEED-IT is capable of mapping the fields, SwarmFarm has developed its own mapping system. “You can look at what per- centage of the paddock the robot has been spraying and where the weeds have been”, explains Jeremy. That allows us to identify problems with resistance, where the same
In the past weeks, Jamie has been running his new robot system daily on his farm. “We really don’t understand yet what the full potential of it is.”
Growing popularity
The future looks bright for SwarmFarm, says precision ag specialist Jeremy Jones at Dalby Rural Supplies. “Growers will be watching very carefully what these first robots will do. And if they do what we are expecting them to do, they will be very very popular...” He points out that spot spraying is very popular world- wide. “We see a lot of pressure on the use of chemicals. Weed resistance is a growing prob- lem.” The boom and the technology on it costs about 10,000 AU$ per meter (6.750 US$ ). “There is a significant price to it, but the sav- ings are substantial. Most farmers will be able to save those costs in chemicals in one season alone.” The cost of the robot is $ 69,600 AU$ (42.000 US$ ) per year on a 3 year operat- ing lease. Labour shortages matter too.
The popularity of autonomous farming sys- tems will also grow because of the increase of labour shortages.
Jeremy says the WEED-IT system fits well with the SwarmFarm robot. “With the volume of product that is used, you don’t have to stay there to refill it every hour. You just push the button and let it go to work...”
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