Pesticide Robot Soon to Be Released on Market

NORMAN DUNN / Better Farming (Ontario ) May03

A robot weed-seeker and a comparatively low-priced automatic pilot for tractors and combines underlined the continuing European trend towards more automation in arable farming at this January's Agromek show in Denmark. The four-wheel-drive weed-seeking robot was developed by the Danish Farm Research Authority. Weed identification is based on colour photography. The satellite-steered GPS equipped robot helps production of weed maps identifying plant types and population patterns with a precision that will make automatic selective herbicide spraying a matter of routine, according to the authority scientists.

There's no price ticket on the robot weed-seeker so far, but its developers point out that it could be saving farmers money right from the start. Trials in Denmark have already shown that precision herbicide spraying according to the weed-seeking robot maps can cut herbicide costs by as much as 40 per cent.

Automatic piloting for tractors also protect the farmer's wallet as well as the environment by banning overlapping in field operations and through giving extreme input precision, according to Farmscan, an Australian company launching its remote control systems for arable operations in Europe this year.

Tractor-mounted Farmscan systems can be programmed to follow field contours and so help beat erosion. The system also allows centimetre precision with more conventional parallel or round-the-field operations, potentially saving up to 10 per cent seed, fertiliser and fuel in a normal working season, according to Farmscan EU manager Michael Westerby.

Centrepiece of the system is a very robust military-developed laptop computer for the tractor cab with full tracking and mapping software. Soil, fertiliser and weed maps can be logged into the computer. Farmscan is not only an automatic pilot, it also offers computer control of up to four different field operations at the same time. This means a combined cultivation, seeding, drilling, spraying and fertilising operation could be carried out with the individual inputs continuously varied. Operations can be according to field map software starting with a drive around the field border to allow the computer to create a field map, or be satellite navigated via GPS. For safe night work, field obstacles can be programmed into each field map so the tractor can automatically take avoidance action.

Additional safety: the operator (it is always advised that one remains on board!) can override the autopilot at any time simply by grasping the steering wheel or braking.

Farmscan was developed in Western Australia where it is now being used by around 500 farmers. Current prices in Europe: around 15,000 Cdn for the field tracking and guidance system. With full remote control including GPS with high-resolution 12 channel antennae and automatic steering kit the system costs about twice that amount, says Farmscan's Michael Westerby.

The new Danish "DLG Field Mapper" still needs human guidance, but the sensor and its ATV tractor samples soils, calculates fertiliser availability and even produces topographic maps of each field at the rate of 20 ha/hour. What's more, the DLG Mapper's conductivity sensors take readings at two depths: around 10 cm and at between 30 and 40 cm. This multi-talent Mapper uses GPS positioning for establishing field maps and stops for automatic soil sampling according to a predetermined grid. Computer control prepares all information for precision mapping. Specialised drainage mapping takes a little longer. Operational speed here, says DLG, is 12 ha/hour.