Now Cropping Up: Robo-Farming

www.wsj.com ^ | June 1, 2018 8:00 a.m. ET | By Vibhuti Agarwal

[Red Badger]

Agricultural-equipment makers gear up driverless tractors, combines in quest to produce more food, more sustainably

The bright red, driverless tractor drags the tiller in a perfect line in a south Indian field, makes a turn at the edge of the property, encounters a test dummy and then stalls, not knowing what to do.

India’s Mahindra & Mahindra , one of the biggest suppliers of smaller tractors to the U.S., and other manufacturers are racing to develop what they see as the future of farming: robo-tractors and other farming equipment to help produce more food, more sustainably at a lower cost.

John Deere has tractors and combines on the market that free the driver in the cabin from the actual driving so he or she can monitor the crops and adjust pesticide, water and soil levels. Technology from Agco Corp.’s Fendt lets several driverless tractors follow a lead tractor driven by a human. Japanese firms Kubota and Yanmar are planning to launch driverless tractors that they expect to be popular with elderly farmers.

The next generation is tractors that can drive entirely by themselves. After that: ones that can plant, fertilize and spray pesticides. London-based CNH Industrial is testing a tractor that has no driver’s cabin, with farmers expected to monitor planting and harvesting remotely.

But there are plenty of obstacles.

The global positioning systems and sensors to steer around hindrances or read different kinds of soil and slopes need improvement.

And the industry anticipates pushback from people whose livelihood could be threatened. In India, for instance, hundreds of millions of farmers make up the country’s largest voter group. “We have decided it has to be a gradual process of migrating the farmers,” said Aravind Bharadwaj, chief technology officer for farm equipment at Mahindra.

[GraceG]

[ “Without humans, there is no need for farming.”

...freeing up more robots for other tasks. ]

what could possibly go wrong?

[tbw2]

World’s first hands-free farmland in Britain hailed a success
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-09/30/c_136649541.htm

[PapaBear3625]

Add an exclusion area in the robot’s map.

Or a link back to the farmer. He can sit in his kitchen drinking his coffee, and if the robot encounters something it's not set up to deal with, it can call the farmer, show him video and audio of the situation, and he can take over remotely.

One farmer can monitor a bunch of robots.