An experimental robotic farm run by UK scientists has been harvested for the first time, yielding about five tonnes of spring barley.
Everything from start to finish — including sowing, fertilising, collecting samples and harvesting — has been done by autonomous vehicles on the farm, researchers said.
Researchers from the Harper Adams University in the UK believe that the robotic technology improve yields in agriculture, which is necessary to avoid food crisis with the growing population in coming years. For the project, dubbed Hands Free Hectare, researchers used commercially available agriculture machines and software used to guide amateur drones. The researchers purchased several small-size agricultural machines, including a tractor and a combine, a machine for harvesting grain crops, the Live Science reported.
They then fitted the machines with actuators, electronics and robotic technology that allowed them to control the machines without the presence of a human operator.