4 minute read
Smart machine on display at an SRA demonstration in the Burdekin
SUPPLIED BY SUGAR RESEARCH AUSTRALIA
Sugar Research Australia gave sugarcane growers an insight into the potential future of farming at a field demonstration of an autonomous farming vehicle and a smart crop sprayer at Brandon last month.
Designed and manufactured in Denmark, the Robotti has been imported by Bundaberg company, Farm Concepts. It is designed for precision operations such as seeding, weeding and spraying and can operate without a driver 24 hours a day, apart from refueling, solely guided by GPS and cameras.
The AutoWeed crop sprayer was designed by James Cook University researchers in partnership with the agricultural technology company
AutoWeed in collaboration with Sugar Research Australia. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and spray weeds in cane fields.
SRA Burdekin District Manager Terry Granshaw said the demonstration was held as part of activities under the 2024 District Productivity Plan for the Burdekin.
“The district plan is developed with input from multiple stakeholders within a district. It includes an examination of the available automation and other innovative technologies which have the potential to improve the productivity and profitability of sugarcane production,” Terry said.
“The Robotti challenges the idea that to be more efficient growers must use larger implements and bigger swathes. The negative impact of that is weight and its effect on soil compaction. The Robotti is relatively small and light weight and can turn in a tight circle for less impact on the soil. It also has autonomous record keeping—recording and mapping all applications,” he said.
Farm Concepts Director Braden Hellmuth demonstrated the vehicle and showed the capabilities of both its hardware and software.
“Farmers were interested that the machine uses a standard type 2 linkage, powered by a small diesel engine with similar hydraulic capabilities to a standard tractor of its size. It also has a hydraulic pump to use PTO driven implements, the same as a tractor. Farmers can service or fix some of the components on the machine themselves,” Terry said.
“The efficiency of the machine in sugarcane operations would need to be tested but it has the potential to be trialed with other autonomous sensory technologies, such as the AutoWeed spot sprayer,” he said.
The dual tank spot sprayer has evolved through trial work in the past two years where hundreds of thousands of images have been collected and then labelled to train detection models which are deployed on the spot spraying machine. Shadows from clouds have been one of the major issues. Two separate methodologies have been developed to overcome this issue. LED lighting and shadow removal software via an algorithm.
Initial trials have already shown the machine to be 97 per cent as effective as blanket spraying, while reducing herbicide outputs by up to 60 per cent.
Other activities examining automation and innovative technologies have included the automated irrigation systems trialled extensively by SRA as part of the Burdekin Irrigation Project (BIP).
An automated system has the potential to improve the ability to match water supply with a crop’s water demand to reduce both water usage and energy costs while at the same time reducing labour demand.
Growers can read their current District Productivity Plan on SRA’s website: sugarresearch.com.au.
Acknowledgements:
The Burdekin Irrigation Project is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation with support from Sugar Research Australia, Farmacist, Agritech Solutions, Burdekin Productivity Services, Burdekin Bowen Irrigated Floodplain Management Advisory Committee, NQ Dry Tropics, James Cook University and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
It is a collaborative initiative of Burdekin extension organisations including Agritech Solutions, Burdekin Bowen Integrated Floodplain Management Advisory Committee, Burdekin Productivity Services, the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Farmacist, James Cook University and Sugar Research Australia.
The Autoweed project has received a grant for four years through the partnership between the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and the Australian Government’s Reef Trust.
