Study Overseas

Precision farming is the buzz-word soon to be heard all over the British Isles, as it describes a situation where microchips and satellite technology are applied to farming, ensuring that farm operations are carried out exactly where they are required. In simple terms, harvesting equipment uses global positioning satellites and computers to map crop yields to the field, so that high and low yielding areas can be found and treated accordingly.

The next generation of agricultural machines will go one stage further - soon, the Intelligent Farm Vehicle (IAV) will be with us. Researchers at Agricultural Engineering Departments in Britain's colleges and universities are rapidly developing Intelligent Farm Vehicles that know where they are in a field and respond accordingly.

One such machine is the 'Squire', currently being developed using artificial intelligence to control operations in the field, using the same control systems that were developed for the Mars Rover. The 'Squire' is capable of following the edge of crops using touch or ultra-sound sensors; instead of a human operator, it relies on computers running fuzzy logic control algorithms. Fuzzy logic is ideal for an IAV, as it allows the use of non-digital sensors to formulate new sets of instructions, allowing the machine to monitor its own performance and make adjustments where necessary.

An example of this 'learning' occurred when a 'Squire' was run around a square of standing crop. At the first attempt to turn around the right angle end, it steered towards the corner, making it too far from the new crop edge, and having to make 16 corrections to regain the correct distance. At the next corner, the IAV turned away when starting the turn, this time ensuring that it was the correct distance from the crop once around the new corner. Future developments for the 'Squire' foresee a vision system that allows the IAV to navigate around a field, teaching itself to distinguish weeds from crops, and dealing with them by non-chemical means, thereby greatly reducing the need to use herbicides.

Another example of Intelligent Farm Vehicles is being developed, looking at precision in forage harvesting. Trailers are being developed that use global positioning systems to gauge where they are within a field, as well as recording the amount of forage being harvested from that area. This information can then be fed into intelligent fertiliser spreaders, so that they apply fertiliser to low yielding areas only.

Already being installed on British farms are robotic milking machines. These robots, designed by British engineers, are capable of milking cows when the cow wants to be milked. Cows walk into the milking stall, the robot places four milking machines onto the udder, with each quarter monitored for milk flow, and the machine removing itself when flow ceases. Robots of this sort allow cows to be milked far more naturally, doing less damage to the cows than conventional milking machines. Vision systems and other sensing devices are able to monitor the cow's health and condition during milking, thereby improving animal welfare and health on many farms.

Robots are also finding their way into the field, to replace operators on steerage hoes. Crops that are grown in rows can be weeded by running a hoe between the crop rows - labour consuming systems that involve an operator driving the tractor, with a second person controlling the hoe. An intelligent hoe uses vision systems to identify the rows of crops, and steer itself accurately between them, considerably reducing the need for herbicides. In horticulture, IAV are being employed to pick crops. Of particular interest is a robot that identifies and picks mushrooms, able to distinguish both where the mushroom is, and picking it with less damage than a human operator. Once the mushroom is picked, the robot is able to accurately grade it, packing it with mushrooms of a similar grade.

Intelligent Agricultural Vehicles are here, and the British Departments of Agricultural Engineering are in the forefront of their development. They are applying the most advanced technology used in industry to transform the face of agriculture. Robots will soon be used to monitor fields and report back to the farmer what is happening in terms of fertility, pests, crop diseases and soil moisture. IAVs will reduce the costs of crop production by being able to monitor the crop much more frequently, and apply corrective measures precisely where they are needed; in animal welfare, robots will allow behaviour to be monitored, making corrections to conditions so that animals suffer little stress. The future of agriculture is no longer tied to hard labour and 16 mono cropped areas - future Agricultural Engineers will enable farms to be smaller in scale, environmentally friendly and sensitive to animal welfare. Such farms will produce food in quantity as well as quality, and at a price that the consumer will welcome.

Malcolm Carr-West
Agricultural Engineering Department
Writtle College (partnered with Essex University)