To fend off Garden pests:
Posted on 06/01/2018 1:26:26 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
The growth industry in this will be the rental business.
They will be too costly for smaller farmers to own so they will be rented like some of the other big farm equipment is now days.
But that is about ten years down the road.
So they think they can make driverless cars, but they cannot make a zero-turn driverless mower?? I mow 6 acres and would really like to send the mower out to take care of it while I sit on the porch and watch - even using a handheld device to partially control it would be fine.
Until these kinds of simpler tasks are done right every time, I am not about to risk my life in a computer controlled vehicle at 75 mph - and even then, not likely.
The Agro-Roomba. They already have some robots to mow grass - it won’t take a major breakthrough to scale that up to a combine.
Much more selective little bots will be coming to do fine detail work, like weeding, picking off insects with fine water jets, and harvesting tender fruits and vegetables, one at a time.
Resistance is futile. Lazy, expensive, inaccurate, inefficient, weak and stupid humans will be replaced.
Over 20 years ago my father had a robot that cleaned the swimming pool. The technology for robot farming is there.
There's one at the link..........John Deere................
That’s no lie. Adios Amigos
Without humans, there is no need for farming. Without farming, there is no need for robots. We are mutually dependent.............
Deere an Co. has had this technology (and better) for years and owns the largest GPS enhancement network.
http://gpsworld.com/tag/john-deere/
Precision At has many benefits, but oftentimes, farmers like to drive tractors ;-)
“Tilling, weeding or seeding robots are justified economically in high wage countries (not so much in India).”
Europe already automates more of farm labor, because they have less of the cheap labor immigrants.
Once the tech is working well, fleets can replace people quickly, worldwide. A decade or less, when they crack the price point.
In China, people have been leaving the farms and heading into the cities for a generation. It has been the biggest migration in human history. It will happen a lot quicker in India, due to the even better/cheaper tech replacement.
People usually envision robots replacing factory workers, but worldwide, there are many more small farmers who will soon need a more productive way to spend their time.
Available here: https://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/#00C3E098D7F349CA93C97B1832218606
What I’d like is one that pulls weeds without damaging crops. I know there are some that will spray weeds, but I prefer organic methods.
The new systems measure and analyze crop fields in detail and can provide seed, water, nutrients. pesticides, and weed-killers as appropriate by the square foot. The result is less inputs but higher yields.
“Without humans, there is no need for farming.”
...freeing up more robots for other tasks.
There will be many types of robots including things like this...
https://futurism.com/robot-bees-drones-walmart/
I saw an article on one that could optically distinguish between weeds and crops, and sliced the weeds with a needle spray of water.
I have a small garden. Would love for something that would just pull the weeds for me.
“Without humans, there is no need for farming “ or food for that matter.
To fend off Garden pests:
“They will be too costly for smaller farmers to own so they will be rented”
Like an Uber ride. An app on your cell phone can manage the farm and garden, and call for robots as needed.
Who knows, but the new robot ag machines may be named Juan, Hector, Ernesto, Edmundo, and so on for the illegal immigrants they displace.
[ Just imagine the cost savings in insecticides and herbicides. A robot will pull weeds and inspect for insects all day and all night...................... ]
Bug zapper robots that patrol the fields with bug lights that are charged up via solar during the day and patrol during the night time...
Little robots that fit between the rows picking out the weeds between crops, taking those weeds, collecting them and putting them in piles at the end of fields for cattle feed. they could also pull out crop plants that are too closely planted together for optimal placement and even re-plant them in areas where there are gaps in a field.
Stuff like this could make our food supply far safer as we wouldn’t have to use chemicals like pesticides and herbicides that could be turning the frickin’ frogs and our boys gay.
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