02-05-2014, 04:54 PM
New concepts in agricultural automation
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Summary
Many new agricultural automation technologies are being developed by
university researchers that pose questions about the efficiency and
effectiveness with which we carry out current agricultural practices. This
has given rise to many new opportunities to service the agronomic
requirements albeit in radically different ways to those currently used. This
paper sets out 41 concepts relating to this work. Some are new and untried;
others have been built and tested in research conditions or are traditional
concepts that have been revisited in light of new technological
opportunities. This paper aims to raise awareness that there are now
alternative ways to support the cropping system; it is not meant to give a
definitive view. Only time will tell which ones become successful.
Introduction
The development of precision farming technologies in the 1990s opened up a new way of
thinking about mechanisation for crop care. It introduced a number of concepts, which
although not new, brought about a shift in the thinking and management of variability. With
yield mapping and VRT (Variable Rate Treatments) the spatial scale of variability could be
practically assessed and treated for the first time since mechanisation was first used. Pre
precision farming, managers assumed that spatial and temporal variability existed but did
not have the ability or tools to deal with it. Since then we have seen the scale of
management and hence treatments reduce from farm-scale, down to field-scale, through
to sub-field scale with varying expectations and benefits.
This technology trend has continued to the point where we now have many smart
controllers that allow the scale of treatment to be reduced further, down to the plant and
even leaf scale. In doing so, these new methods of introducing smart controllers and
automation have enabled the development of new concepts of practical crop management
that were not feasible before. We now have levels of automation where we can consider
the methods people used before large-scale machinery was introduced and see if these
same methods can be utilised today using small smart machines.
New concepts
Many new concepts are being developed to allow agricultural automation to flourish and
deliver its full potential. In some respects this needs a paradigm shift away from how we
have done these tasks in the past to how we could do them using SSM (small smart
machines). The current trend of machinery development is incremental where each new
machine is a little better than the one before.
Phytotechnology:
This word was first used in this context by Shibusawa (1996) to
describe machines that were better suited to dealing with individual plants. Tillett and
Hague (1998) developed a similar conceptual approach called plant-scale husbandry in
their weed spraying robot. This concept takes the emphasis away from the machine and
work rates and focuses directly on plant needs – to develop an autonomous machine that
can tend and care for each individual plant according to its needs. When plant
requirements are defined independently of the machine that carries out the corresponding
operations, this improved specification can be used in conjunction with mechatronic
principles to design smarter and more efficient machines.
Intelligently Targeted Inputs (ITI): Current machines do not usually use sensors or
control systems to regulate what happens during field operations. They tend to use blanket
treatments and in many cases it is quite difficult to achieve the desired levels of accuracy.
Consequently this approach uses more inputs than are necessary. This leads to higher
costs as well as environmental pollution. These inputs can be seen as energy inputs and
many field operations can be equally categorized in the form of energy, such as the energy
requirement to build the tractor, energy to make the chemicals and energy to fuel the
machines. From both environmental and economic perspectives, this energy should be
limited to a minimum of what is needed both in how it is delivered (there is not much point
in having a 10 tonne tractor applying a few grams of chemical) and how it is targeted to the
right place at the right time in the right way to make best use of its potential and minimise
waste.
Conclusion
Agricultural automation is a continual development. The current research technologies
give rise to the possibility of developing a completely new mechanisation system to
support the cropping system based on small smart machines. This system replaces
blanket energy over application with intelligently targeted inputs thus reducing the cost of
the inputs while increasing the level of care. This can improve the economics of crop
production as well as having less environmental impact.