Mikkel Fly Kragh next to one of the sensors for an autonomous tractor.
willingness to buy present obstacles. “The technology is already available, but it requires a guarantee that the machine’s working area is completely closed off and no outsiders can
get into it. Something which is very difficult to do,” he explains. “Not to mention that the price is too high. Right now it costs half a mil- lion kroner (US$ 75,000) just for the sensors.
New Danish robot harvests biomass in vulnerable wetlands
emissions. However, greenhouse gas emissions fall markedly when the areas be- come wet. And they are becoming wetter, partly because the peatlands “settle”, and partly because climate change causes more precipitation. While this is good for the climate, it presents a problem for the farmer who cannot till the land with ordinary machines. Some try us- ing heavy tractors on tracks, but perhaps
By Erik Suhr - Denmark has 108,000 hec- tares of drained, carbon-rich low-lying soil. Although just 4% of the agricultural land, this accounts for 20-25% of total agricultural CO2
the solution is to use light, autonomous “ro- bots” that do not destroy the wetland vege- tation. Hence the project GrassBot2, to fur- ther develop an existing robot for harvesting and collecting grass on wet meadows. Tech company AgroIntelli is the project leader; Aarhus University, Conpleks and Bertelsen Design are the other participants. The robot can frequently harvest grass on soft, low-lying land, and this may increase the protein content in the harvested bio- mass. The idea is that it can be used to feed “green protein” to pigs and chickens. The waste material from the protein production
Plus 200,000 kroner (US$ 30,000) for the LiDAR part, and in the longer term it could probably go down in price to just 100 dollars for this,” he says.
The team behind GrassBot2, a robot for har- vesting grass on wet meadows.
could be used to make biogas, which helps to reduce fossil energy consumption. The ro- bot can also be used for nature conservation in wetlands, where ordinary farming is not an option.
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 22 February 2019 43
PHOTO: DCA, AARHUS UNIVERSITY
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