Arable Matters: Is the AgBot robot tractor a game changer?

Capable of a multitude of farm tasks using normal farm implement attachments, the AgBot 5.115T2, a 156hp dual tracked driverless tractor which is now available to buy from Angus-based precision farming specialists, SoilEssentials, certainly looked a bit different from your normal tractor.

The machine, which took pride of place on the company’s stand at the show, was also on a bit of a grand tour this week to carry out on-farm demonstration days in East Lothian and Angus. Sadly, though, a few days into the week following the show a dose of Covid – or ‘Show-vid’ as many are now calling it in farming circles – intervened to stop me getting along to see it actually strutting its stuff in the field.

But speaking at the show, the company’s managing director, Jim Wilson, revealed that despite the £220,000 price tag, there had been several strong declarations of interest from prospective buyers who had looked in to see the machine.

“The game-changer is that there is no need for anyone to sit in the driving seat – a major bonus in this time of labour shortages. And when you take into account the price of labour and the fact that one of these machines can work through the night, putting in 24 hours a day, the investment sounds less daunting.”

He added that while many of the major tractor manufacturers had revealed concept and prototype models, none were yet available for sale – but the developers of the AgBot had worked away quietly in the background and had made the crucial leap to full market launch.

While some of these big companies, such as John Deere, are currently set to launch in the Americas, Asia and Australia, they had, rather disappointingly, declared that they’re not planning to market driverless tractors in the UK, or Europe due to the legislative difficulties over where liability lay should anything go wrong.

But Mr Wilson added that with AgBots already working commercially in the Netherlands where it had been developed and in other European countries, AgXeed, its manufacturer, had not been daunted by the legislation – and he added that insurance was certainly available to cover the vehicles.

Now I wrote a piece for another paper revealing the sad fact that one of the earliest memories which I can recollect involved the demonstration of a robotic tractor at the Highland Show, more than a few years ago. If memory serves, a wee red Fergie trundled round the main ring, stopping to turn in and face the crowd every so often and flash its lights in a friendly salute to the enthralled crowd standing several people deep around the ringside – with no driver steering it!

While it might have been a simple remote radio control which produced what was at the time such an amazing spectacle, a driverless tractor certainly impressed the audience.

“Aye, that’ll be what will be on the go when you’re a farmer,” I remember being told by the elderly relative who was taking me on the annual treat to see all the show had to offer – and to collect as many leaflets as I could possibly carry from stands stacked high with the shiniest new machinery.

Picture books with 'The farm of the future' added to this belief, with Bleep and Booster-esque machinery trundling unaided round the farm, while a serious faced farmer watched over his flock of robo-tractors from the comfort of his central control tower.

Fast forward more decades than I’d care to admit and it is finally beginning to look like this vision of hands-free farming might actually be inching its way towards reality. For, with the show having returned to its normal format after a gap of three years, one of the most notable changes was the sudden spurt in the number of robot tractors and other pieces of autonomous machinery capable of carrying out a day’s work without the need for the farmer’s hand – or indeed a farm hand.

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It would seem that while we were all stuck on the farm over the past few years mastering the mysteries of Zoom, a similar step forward in the application of technology had been underway by tractor makers around the globe.

The enormous development in satellite navigation technology in recent years has seen the use of auto-steer guidance become a commonplace fitment on most new tractors (should the appropriate micro-chips be available!) and while machines fitted with them still need to be under the control of a driver, I guess this technology has marked an important stepping stone towards fully autonomous tractors.

One of the other directors of the company selling the AgBot said the step change which it offered in working practice was similar to that between a horse and a grey Fergie. But I found myself wondering if it would match up to the expectations raised by that wee red Fergie at the show so many years ago …

Interestingly enough, though – and despite all the hype which has surrounded the robo-tractor – Mr Wilson said that it would probably be their new sprayer technology – which uses artificial intelligence (you’re probably best not to go with the term AI in farming papers…) – to recognise weeds and to be able to spot spray them, rather than blanket treating the whole field, that will be a more immediate game-changer.

If as he said, this could easily reduce the amount of sprays used by 75%, then that bill that just landed on my desk for this year’s herbicides would probably look a good deal more palatable.

The company’s SKAi smart spray technology camera won one of the Highland Show Silver awards for technical innovation. Developed in Scotland, this is currently working in the Netherlands to eliminate rogue potatoes in onion crops and, put basically, utilises smart cameras, trained to recognise target weed species and control a crop sprayer as it passes over a field.

Mr Wilson said that while it had initially been used to target dock infestations in grass leys, the system was now ready to take on higher value arable crops. The veg sector might be the first to adopt the system, he reckoned because the targeted spot spraying of individual weed species had now become a real and viable option.

The ability of the AI (that’s artificial intelligence, remember) system to learn as it went along meant that while the system had full functionality when the crop and target species were of very different appearance – such as broad-leaved weeds in grassland and potatoes in onion crops, he believed that as intelligence develops, growers will be able work even where the weeds and the crop were of very similar appearance, potentially even grass weeds in cereal crops.

While he admitted that the system would work as long as the human eye could distinguish between the species – I’m sure it’ll soon be smarter than that.

For, as the old song might soon go, 'Old MacDonald had a farm – AI, AI, Oh' – been waiting to use that phrase for a loooong time!.