Autonomous tech: Enter the robots

Sadly, missing from the calendar this year, Agritechnica is always a good place to catch up with tech developments, ranging from positively wacky interpretations of how future farms might look to intriguing nods to the adoption of automation in familiar machinery.

Without major exhibitions – although specialist events dedicated to technology have fittingly flourished in ‘virtual’ platforms – developments have quietly continued towards commercially viable autonomous agricultural machines taking their place on farms.

Across the globe, manufacturers from the multi-nationals to research-based start-ups have autonomous solutions coming to market this year. Those with established manned equipment ranges have also benefited from the R&D work carried out in the form of advances to machine control, artificial intelligence and data processing for these product lines.

Indeed, some companies are now looking at their developments more as part of ongoing research platforms than commercial products in their own right. However, there will be some commercially available autonomous machines working in the UK and Europe this year, and we have aimed to give an indication of this below.

Legislation remains a stumbling block in many parts of the world; countries such as the USA and Australia do not have to contend with the risk of members of the public – legally – accessing their land while an autonomous machine is in operation, so can progress more quickly with driverless solutions.

Other issues being addressed by developers include whether the machine needs to be completely autonomous – it may be that cultivating on steep slopes without having to sit on the tractor seat or the ability to apply chemicals remotely will offer significant advantages alone.

How the machines are deployed is another consideration. Given that autonomous vehicles will need skilled operation, the ability to overcome