NEXT-GENERATION FARM ROBOTS ON SHOW
A FULLY automated robot with eyesight keener than any human was one of the dozens of technological innovations on display at the Meat and Livestock Australian Updates session at the Toowoomba Showgrounds.
It was presented to hundreds of producers, business leaders, engineers and scientists gathered at the Toowoomba Showgrounds to learn how MLA is investing its members’ levies.
The aptly named BunkBot is an invention by UniSQ PHD graduate Dr Stuart McCarthy.
Through his Brisbanebased engineering company Manabotix, Dr McCarthy has spent the past six years refining his robot and customising it to dozens of feedlots across Australia and North America.
“It is world-first technology that can more accurately detect how much feed is in the feed box which allows for better decision making processes of feedlots,” he said.
The feed box sensor is mounted to an automated robotic system that is programmed to run along a fence line, with each iteration of the BunkBot customised to the particulars of the feedlots, taking into account size, topography, weather and the volume of cattle.
With better measurements, producers are able to make better decisions on the quantity and quality of nutrients given to cattle. Dr McCarthy said this made their operations more cost effective which was why MLA members had been investing in his research.
“We hope with days like this to increase the profile and awareness of where MLA’s investment is going in the feedlot sector because there is a large appetite for improving the quality of object measurement.”