Automation and the farmer

Abstract

A current problem in Australia is the shortage of human assistance for farmers. Automation and technological innovation are discussed as answers to this, delegating tasks to ‘robot’ systems. By way of example, projects are examined that have been conducted over the years at the NCEA, including vision guidance of tractors, quality assessment of produce, discrimination between plants and weeds and determination of cattle condition using machine vision. Strategies are explored for extending the current trends that use machine intelligence to reduce the need for human intervention, including the concept of smaller but more intelligent autonomous devices. Concepts of teleoperation are also explored, in which assistance can be provided by operatives remote from the process. With present advances in communication bandwidth, techniques that are common for monitoring remote trough water levels can be extended to perform real-time dynamic control tasks that range from selective picking to stock drafting.