The robot revolution is about to arrive in European fields

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Robotics in dairying has long been with us, but at last it seems to be coming to field crops with the experts predicting major commercial introductions in the next few years

by NORMAN DUNN

Crop Scout, Bullseye, Sun-Rover or Flower Power – these names are not as well-known in farm field mechanization as New Holland, Massey Ferguson or Claas. But, given a few years, I'd guess that some of the former will be just as familiar to crop growers everywhere.

These are the "brand names" given to a growing stable of field robots being developed by technology institutes all over Europe. And there's plenty of backing from nearly all the big names in farm mechanization, including Claas, Lemken, Deere and Amazone.  

The crop robots' immediate future? Automatic weeding, spot spraying, even some vegetable harvesting operations – and still more tasks in greenhouse crops and horticulture.

Europe already holds national and international field robot events each summer, where the wheeled and tracked automats pit their electronic wits against one another, not so much in standard fieldwork but more in exercises such as manoeuvring at speed through corn or sunflower rows and identifying weeds or sick plants. The tasks have to be carried out automatically with no laptop control and no predicted routes programmed into the machine computers.

Last year, for instance, Europe's 11th International Field Robot Event near Prague in the Czech Republic featured a record 20 automats showing off their precision abilities. This year, the same number of teams is expected from institutes in nine countries from Finland to Turkey and down to Spain. They'll be gathering at the German Agricultural Society's (DLG) Field Days in mid-June.

Among the combatants will be "Bullseye," fielded by agrotechnologists from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. This is an R&D centre of excellence that actually launched the field robot competition, holding the first three international events for enthusiasts starting in 2003.

Bullseye itself is a four-wheel-drive machine powered by lightweight lithium batteries. Compared with modern tractors, it's tiny, at around half a metre long. Bullseye has four-wheel, 180-degree steering for extreme manoeuvrability. There's an electric engine on each wheel and, up top are the controlling computer and steering and sensing module based on laser scanners front and rear and 3-D cameras for precise navigation through growing crops.

Most of the robots taking part already claim to be programmable for more commercial field tasks, such as planting seedling pots or soil sampling according to pre-programmed GPS soil map positions.

Another competitor will be Sun-Rover from Osnabruck University in northern Germany. This model has also been tried out with real-life farming jobs, such as testing soil compaction levels across fields. Sun-Rover navigates partly via laser scanners with two cams for weed detection. A car computer is in charge of the operating system. Skid steering is chosen for manoeuvring. 

Horticulturalists in the Netherlands have long been amongst the most interested observers at the international field robot events. Among the most obvious reasons is the continuing lack of affordable labour in smaller-scale fruit and vegetable growing in that country.

There are farm mechanization experts that blame a "bigger is better" mindset amongst modern European arable farmers for shutting the door on the potential field robot revolution so far. However, this attitude could at last be changing, according to Prof. Simon Blackmore, Head of Engineering at Britain's Harper Adams University. Just this January, he warned that increasingly heavier and more powerful tractors and implements weren't necessarily the right way to go in countries with wet, north European climates. Often, more damage occurs in soils with the bigger machines, even though the actual jobs are carried out faster.

One answer, he said, would involve the smaller field robots now being developed. "Commercialization in this direction," he notes, "is not too far away."  

The key to more robotic application seems to be precision operations or the more repetitive row crop tasks. Identifying and removing undesirable seed potatoes, targeted weeding or careful spot spaying are good examples – not forgetting the opportunities for "hand" fertilization of flowers and fruit. Added attention to the economic and environmental advantages of even more controlled fuel and pesticide use will certainly increase European farmer support for the long-delayed field robot revolution. BF