Robo Farming

Robots have revolutionised the manufacturing industries; could they do the same for farming?

This page has been rewritten as a proposal to harness the skills of potentially redundant  BAE Systems employees

Aims

1.                    To use battlefield technology as the basis for a “green” agrarian revolution.

2.                    To create secure jobs for redundant BAE Systems employees.

The proposal in a nutshell

During the Victorian era horse drawn ploughs were used to till moderate sized fields bordered by hedges and trees. Compared with today’s big field farming, Victorian agriculture was eco-friendly but inefficient and very man-power intensive.

BAE Systems battlefield technology could be adapted to create a new generation of small “robo tractors”. These would replace the old farm horses and have sufficient programmed intelligence to act independently most of the time. The farmer’s role would be to monitor the movements of robo tractor teams and take corrective action where necessary.

Figure 1. Robo tractors could replace the muscle power of farm horses. This will create an agrarian revolution that combines the environmental benefits of Victorian farming with the efficiency of large scale field farming.

Intelligent camera systems could monitor the health of cropping areas, minimising the usage of agri-chemicals.

Intelligent systems would also distinguish between weeds and crops. This would assist hoeing and weeding, further reducing the need for chemicals.

Creating more jobs

Agricultural productivity will be low within a 2.5 metre shadow of the hedges, but this space can be used to advantage, creating new attractions for the rural tourism industry.

Figure 2. UK farming is worth £4.8billion/year but rural tourism brings in up to £80billion/year.
[“Red squirrel could vanish in 20 years,” page 13, Sunday Times News Section, 25 September 2011.]

Investment in robo tractor technology would revitalise rural communities.

A three year plan

Year 1

The new company is registered. BAE Systems permits the use of its intellectual property in return for shares.

A small team of engineers and technicians construct prototype robo tractors and remote plant diagnostic technology. Agricultural expertise from (say) The University of Central Lancashire is enlisted.

Public relations campaign attracts shareholder investment from parties wishing to demonstrate their “green” credentials.

Technology Strategy Board and European Framework research and development funding applied for.

Year 2

The work force increases. Farm scale field trials begin.

 Robo farming computer simulation games released.

Year 3

Commercial production begins.

Long term benefits

The purchasing cycle for the new products would be out of phase with military hardware markets. Some staff could float between companies to maximise productivity and security of employment.

A more detailed discussion of the proposal

Throughout the twentieth century, European arable farmers have been forced to adopt North American prairie farming techniques, in order to remain commercially competitive.

The results are proving to be an environmental disaster. Wild life habitats have been lost and soils have been depleted by wind and rain erosion as hedges are removed.

Annual topsoil losses of between 0.1 and 20 tones per hectare are silting our rivers and clogging our drains. [“Century of neglect means the land can’t take any more, Sunday Times News, page 12, 29 July 2007.]

Water polluting agri-chemicals have to be used in large quantities to compensate for the reduced soil quality and loss of natural pest controls.

The poor water holding capacity of large exposed fields combined with blocked drains is contributing to the devastating effects of flash floods as climate change becomes reality. Ironically, the rapid drainage is also causing drinking water shortages because the water has less time to trickle down into the aquifers.

The solution

Revert to traditional European small field farming, but use GPS/radio transmitter guided robo-tractor teams, supervised by human controllers, to allow the efficient cultivating of the land. Robo-tractors would have a shorter working length than existing models because seeds and agri-chemicals could be carried in the space currently occupied by the driver’s cabin. Ploughs and other tractor attachments would be miniaturised to allow operations in small fields. But productivity could be higher than using prairie farm machinery because one controller would supervise several tractors.

The controller would teach the robo-tractors the locations of the field boundaries, in a one-off human guided boundary touring exercise.

Subsequent robo-tractor team activities would be monitored by the controller using a screen display indicating the GPS located positions of the tractor team.

Guidance in GPS blind spots would be supported by local transmitters, dead reckoning and on-board CCTV systems.

Benefits

• The elimination of a conventional front and rear to the tractors, as defined by the driver’s seating position, would allow the use of innovative tractor-implement couplings, reducing turning circles.
• The radically new designs would offer good opportunities for strong patent protection. This would provide long term security against foreign competition for jobs.
• GPS guided robo-tractors will be able to follow curved paths, allowing furrows to be ploughed and hedges to be planted parallel to the contours. This will reduce soil erosion and the rate of rain water runoff.
• Small field systems would allow the environmental benefits of crop rotation and companion plants to be brought to industrial scale agriculture.
• The increased organic content of richer soils would lock in significant quantities of carbon dioxide.
• In critical flood water donating agricultural areas, the crop rotations could be arranged so that at least one field in any direction of water runoff was always in an optimum condition for catching and retaining the rain water.
• Robo-tractor usage logged against GPS verified coordinates will allow the collection of data on diseases/pests and agricultural trends. This will aid agricultural planning and reduce the administration costs associated with claiming agricultural grants.
• The hedge margins used by the robo-tractors could form the basis for a European network of separated horse riding, off-road cycling and walking tracks. This would generate new tourism businesses in rural areas. (One lesson we learned from the 2001 UK Foot and Mouth outbreak was that tourism generated more rural income than farming.)
• A comprehensive network of hedges across lowland Europe would create migration corridors, assisting small animals, insects and some plants to move in response to climate change.
• On steep hillsides, where conventional tractors would be unstable, low centre of gravity robo-tractors could be used, for thrashing bracken, to increase grazing pasture and reduce the risk of Lyme’s disease from ticks that hide in bracken.
• Some of today’s computer games players will become tomorrow’s farmers. Adapting to the new technology will be “child’s play.”

Figure 3. The economic value of a “green” agrarian revolution would be massive.

 Environmentalists, the Green Party and MEPs for rural areas will favour EU subsidies for an agrarian revolution that creates rural jobs and protects the environment.