Drones and robo-tractors – it’s the future
THE return of the BBC’s Robot Wars brought with it a whiff of nostalgia for 25 to 30-year-olds.
But for those of us involved in farming who are of a slightly more mature vintage, there was a similar blast from the past when it was announced that one of the big agricultural machinery manufacturers was considering releasing a driverless robot tractor.
I remember seeing a driverless tractor at the Highland Show in the late 1960s – so the idea certainly isn’t new.
In those days, when mankind had just taken that first giant step on the Moon, it was easy to imagine that such inventions would become commonplace on farms.
I remember a picture book featuring driverless tractors ploughing the fields and sowing the grain – all run from a control tower.
However, obstacles stopping such things becoming everyday sights seemed to sprout up over the intervening years.
Cost was a major issue – with the development of standalone technologies for the industry often proving way too expensive for even the most go-ahead manufacturers to take on board.
However, in recent years developments in other areas – such as satnav in cars – have made it cheaper to adapt and refine existing technologies for use on the farm.
We’ve now reached the stage where tractor guidance and auto-steer technologies – which allow tractors and combines to steer themselves up and down fields with incredible accuracy – are becoming mainstream.
Last week, manufacturers calculated that, across the world, more than 300,000 tractors equipped with these devices were likely to be sold during 2016 – and sales could rise to double that by 2026.
Using such systems still requires a driver on the tractor whenever it is moving.
But so-called “unmanned autonomous tractors” – robo-tractors to you and me – have been developed. And while they might be a bit pricey, their success has been hampered more by regulations, high sensor costs and doubts among farmers as to just how well they perform in the real world.
But with a threefold increase in the use of robots and other high-tech devices such as drones in the farming world being predicted by 2022, in the very near future grain just might soon be sown and harvested – and your tatties howked – all by driverless tractors.