Australia's been working with various types of robotics in agriculture since 1980 at least [1], these days, for open field work there are several families of solution in developmental progress.
One leading contender is SwarmFarm Robotics, based out of Queensland.
For interest, here's a recent opinion / demonstration from an unassociated Australian farmer considering a purchase.
The farm is Tom’s Brook, a grain farm located in Esperance in Western Australia. It’s a family operated business growing a mixture of Wheat, Barley and Canola on 4500 hectares (11 200 Acres). Sizewise is pretty much bang on the average W.Australian grain acerage.
The unit pair in action here, autonomous tractor pulling intelligent boom spray, has had 10,000 acres of operation prior to this customer demonstration.
Runs at about 13 hectares per hour, max speed 10 km/hour.
Advantages of "intelligence" during operation are reduced spray usage (basic green on dirt detection, and green shape on mixed green patterns) and weather patience (happy to sit idle until wind and humidity are optimal)
70 odd Comments include feedback from other farmers already using such agribots, eg:
Just rolled over 12,000 hrs on our swarmbot. 4 years, 3000hr a year, doesn't get into the shed much.
The first 12 minutes are Vendor + Farmer discussing bot in action, remaining eight minutes is farmer and hands discussing pros and cons.
One leading contender is SwarmFarm Robotics, based out of Queensland.
* https://advance.qld.gov.au/innovation-in-queensland/innovati...
* https://www.swarmfarm.com/
For interest, here's a recent opinion / demonstration from an unassociated Australian farmer considering a purchase.
The farm is Tom’s Brook, a grain farm located in Esperance in Western Australia. It’s a family operated business growing a mixture of Wheat, Barley and Canola on 4500 hectares (11 200 Acres). Sizewise is pretty much bang on the average W.Australian grain acerage.
Seeing a Swarm Bot in Action (20 min) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljEKN7CsjnM
The unit pair in action here, autonomous tractor pulling intelligent boom spray, has had 10,000 acres of operation prior to this customer demonstration.
Unloaded weight ~ 3.5 metric tonne, loaded approx 5 tonne.
Runs at about 13 hectares per hour, max speed 10 km/hour.
Advantages of "intelligence" during operation are reduced spray usage (basic green on dirt detection, and green shape on mixed green patterns) and weather patience (happy to sit idle until wind and humidity are optimal)
70 odd Comments include feedback from other farmers already using such agribots, eg:
The first 12 minutes are Vendor + Farmer discussing bot in action, remaining eight minutes is farmer and hands discussing pros and cons.--
[1] Robot Sheep Shearing (1985) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZAh2zv7TMM