For those interested in autonomous ag field robots, Future Farming (Misset Publisher, BV, Doetinchem, Netherlands) put together an informative video that features 16 commercially available units. A wide range of robots are highlighted – tool carriers, planters that geo-reference seed placement, several weeding machines and even a rock picker. The short, 3 minute 20 second video is interesting and a quick way to get up to date on these technologies.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds and whether these types of machines will become adopted in Arizona vegetable production. When discussing the high cost of automated weeding and other “smart” machines with a grower, he stated that the tractor driver was the cheapest part of the system. It’s a good point and one that’s hard to argue with.
Click here or on the image to see Commercial Autonomous Ag Robot video.