ROBOTIC EFFICIENCY
Smart technology that places robots in the paddock could support a return to simple and accurate farming
Robots‘ don’t mean unmanned technology running farms, there will always be farmers in the loop.
Andrew Bate
ONE day in the not-so-distant future Andrew Bate believes there could be “30 or so robots” slowly and surely helping with simple tasks on every farm.
He’s not talking a transformers-style agricultural take-over. Rather, this Emerald grain grower believes it would be a case of using smart technology to increase yield and efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of farming.
Mr Bate, in partnership with his family, runs Bendee – a 8100ha cereal and pulse property in the Central Highlands.
Five years ago he founded Swarm Technology, a research and innovation enterprise working in partnership with several Australian universities to bring a multitude of small robots to the paddock.
His downsized technology concept is in stark contrast to a broad-scale farming world where both machines and farm sizes have increased dramatically over the past two decades.
“Out on farms everything has just been getting bigger,” Mr Bate said.
“We used to use a 16m-wide spray rig weighing 7.5 tonnes, then we upgraded so we could spray twice as much country, buying a 24m-wide machine that weighed 12 tonnes.
“Then we went even bigger, buying a 36m-wide rig that has 300 horsepower and weighed 21 tonne and left deep, compacted wheel tracks.
“Everything is getting larger and yet we are going backwards.
“We are facing a massive battle to keep Australian agriculture going, but we’ve forgotten all about slow, accurate farming.”
It was this desire to “pull” research and effectively lead the change in the paddock that prompted this self-confessed “farming nerd” to establish Swarm Technology.
In effect, he wanted to replace the 21-tonne machine with robots weighing “a few hundred kilograms” and doing jobs like weed control in a simple, but environmentally sustainable manner.
“It’s not about saving us heaps in labour, it’s already pretty lonely on farms,” Mr Bate said.
“It’s about developing simple robots to do simple tasks and do them well.”
For example, he explained, robots have already been developed with the capacity to differentiate green-from-green, so they could be used in weed control.
“A researcher at the University of Melbourne has now developed microwave technology that can be used to kill weeds, but you have to stop at each weed to do that.
“So it doesn’t work on a spray coupe travelling at 28kmh, but it could work with a small robot permanently in the paddock killing weeds.
“It’s an effective option in a world where Roundup is relatively cheap, but herbicide resistance is increasing.”
Central to his plan is developing technology that is affordable to those in agriculture.
“A New South Wales broad-scale farmer might have 30 Swarm robots in his paddocks, while a Third World farmer might have one,” Mr Bate said.
“It will potentially bring the efficiencies of large-scale farming to small-scale farming.”
His work is complemented by research being done by Craig Baillie, the director of the National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba.
Mr Baillie is also originally from Emerald and grew up on a cotton farm before pursuing research into agricultural technology.
He said the major advances in agriculture had been mechanisation, chemicals, genetically modified crops and the next would be automative, intelligent robotic systems.
The researcher said “see, think and do” technology was already at trial stage in the paddock with, for example, irrigation systems, which could gauge moisture levels and alter watering levels to the optimum point for crop growth.
Mr Baillie said automated drafting technology had also been used in livestock systems where feral animals like goats had been drafted off a watering point.
“Robots don’t mean unmanned technology running farms, there will always be farmers in the loop,” Mr Bate said.
“What it can mean is farmers are getting the best possible feedback on the ground and machines are set up to help them do the best possible job.”
Andrew Bate and Craig Baillie were guest speakers at the Rural Press Club breakfast at the 2014 Heritage Ag Show in Toowoomba.