Getting Comfortable with No Seat No Cab. Preparing Growers for Driverless Machines

Farming as an industry is arguably a forward-thinking enterprise that works as efficiently as all its parts. In a time of unpredictable weather, rising input costs and a greater gap in understanding between consumers and growers, broadacre farmers are looking for innovative ways of meeting these challenges while also meeting consumer demand for developing agriculture in an environmentally sustainable way. Could Driverless Machines help in meeting these challenges and if so, what can farmers do now to make an easy transition to this automated future?

Technical efficiency in broadacre farming assumes maximum output from a carefully considered complex range of inputs.  With the trialling of new technologies, farmers not only need information about the new technology and its applications in various scenarios, but they also need to know how to prepare for trials with suppliers in ways that might guarantee success for both.  Furthermore, they need reassurance that legal, social, and financial considerations for themselves and their communities will not be adversely affected.

As pointed out in the Rabo Research Food & Agribusiness Podcast (June 2017), many farmers lack the necessary technological and financial infrastructures that are key to executing a smooth adoption of robotics to the farm. Knowledge of the dollars and cents for the farm are a must, along with an overview of assumptions of how the driverless products could improve efficiency and timeliness.  Such information is the kind that can be shared between farmers and suppliers during trials and is crucial to their success.

Farmers’ concerns also relate to the impact of the use of new technologies on their communities.  Shire offices and the police have an interest in how the machines are moved around the area, for instance.  There is much confusion about regulatory laws for autonomous machines in general and with the possibility of driverless machines driving on public roads, an understanding of these will have a determining factor on the type of driverless machines farmers will purchase. 

This report gives farmers information about the technology and its applications and provides a guide for steps that can be done now in preparation for trials which will allow farmers to develop a greater understanding of the technology, giving them confidence in the products available today and to come. This guide contains advice on paddock mapping and current issues with mapping as this is the brains behind the operation. It considers factors around getting machines from paddock to paddock and issues of operation and assessment such as which operation suits which type of machine best.  Furthermore, it suggests that there is much that is still unknown about how driverless machines will affect broadacre farming and that farmers need to look at what is important to them, the people they work with and getting the job done.