Continental Contadino - Robot Implement Carrier - Hall 4

[Continental News]

This is Contadino, our first fully electric, autonomous robot platform for high precision farming! He will make agriculture more efficient, sustainable and even much safer. How? Find it out at the premiere of his prototype at @Agritechnica (booth C22, hall 4) on November, 11!

 

[Clive]

This looks very interesting, I can see stuff being developed to work along rows on these and in fields very soon

 

[Farmer Roy]

This looks very interesting, I can see stuff being developed to work along rows on these and in fields very soon

"it'll never work here, on our fields, our soil types, too many hedges, pikeys will steal them, what was wrong with a MF 35 & a 2 furrow plough, that's when farmers made money & the public loved us"

 

[Clive]

What I can’t understand is why so much hope, excitement, and investment is getting thrown at things like hands-free Hectare and small robot company when it seems the tech is mostly already here?

I have a feeling I will be tripping over robots on every stand at Agritechnica next week!

what needs development is the tools to sit on these things, I saw even DJI (consumer drone people) I have a sub £600 “small robot” commercially available now capable of row following out the box

 

[Farmer Roy]

 

[Farmer Roy]

 

[Clive]

yes its all a lot closer than some seem to think

I think I bought my last conventional sprayer last year and probably my last conventional drill this year

 

[Farmer Roy]

at least you "get it", not like the "which tractor / 2 furrow plough / things were better in the 70's" brigade . . .

 

[Chris F]

What I can’t understand is why so much hope, excitement, and investment is getting thrown at things like hands-free Hectare and small robot company when it seems the tech is mostly already here?

I have a feeling I will be tripping over robots on every stand at Agritechnica next week!

what needs development is the tools to sit on these things, I saw even DJI (consumer drone people) I have a sub £600 “small robot” commercially available now capable of row following out the box

Its very much the different between hardware and software though. Hardware is an easy place to spend money, but software is often the revolutionary bit.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

at least you "get it", not like the "which tractor / 2 furrow plough / things were better in the 70's" brigade . . .

Shhhhhbhh. They don’t come in here alright. And that’s fine by me.

Oh no....

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Often follow the tweets from Angus Hogan who moved to Swarm Farm after serving his time in precision Ag at AGCO/Fendt. Seems a passionate bloke.

 

[kiwi pom]

I'll be called a hater but I don't see the point for that application.
It has for its working width a pretty big diesel engine, you have to control it round the yard, set it up, transport it to the field and once working keep filling it with seed.
It also looks really flimsy, put 1000 hours on it and lets see what its working like. Its still not going to work in the pi**ing down rain so its output is too low.
I'm trying to see it from both sides but it doesn't make sense to me.
If you don't think the security of such units wont be a problem in the UK you're just dreaming.

 

[kiwi pom]

yes its all a lot closer than some seem to think

I think I bought my last conventional sprayer last year and probably my last conventional drill this year

I do see the point of trying to take the labour out of things and some jobs suit robots, autonomous machines etc. But I really don't see how its going to change large scale combinable cropping farms, especially in the UK.
What do you thinks going to happen?
I also see big problems in situations where the public could potentially have access or be affected by the machines.
Autonomous mining equipment in a highly secured site makes sense.
Machines running round in fields containing footpaths and surrounded by houses not so much.
I always hear 'its just a small step from what we have now' I think its much more complicated than that.

 

[Farmer Roy]

I'll be called a hater but I don't see the point for that application.
It has for its working width a pretty big diesel engine, you have to control it round the yard, set it up, transport it to the field and once working keep filling it with seed.
It also looks really flimsy, put 1000 hours on it and lets see what its working like. Its still not going to work in the pi**ing down rain so its output is too low.
I'm trying to see it from both sides but it doesn't make sense to me.
If you don't think the security of such units wont be a problem in the UK you're just dreaming.

granted - but it’s a start

farm machinery as we know it has 50 - 70 years of development . . .

no reason a Diesel engine can’t be substituted for electric at some point, I guess they were just working with the best tech available at the moment

I wouldn’t work anything in the rain & as for output - well, that depends how big or how many you have, just like modern “conventional” equipment ranges from about 3 m wide to 36 m wide, depending on location & application

loading could be autonomous as well, as for safety & hazards - it seems the tech exists now for driverless cars in public roads, so I think a farm field has fewer hazards. The tech already is here to retrofit “conventional” tractors to autonomous operation,

as to theft - all I can say after reading numerous threads in TFF is thank f**k I don’t live in the UK . . .

ok - they won’t be for everyone, but I can definitely see this sort of tech having real world applications & leaping ahead

most of the work here with them is FARMER led, not the big machinery manufacturers

yes, JD & CNH have their stuff, but it is just basically large cabless tractors, not a real paradigm shift

 

[kiwi pom]

granted - but it’s a start

farm machinery as we know it has 50 - 70 years of development . . .

no reason a Diesel engine can’t be substituted for electric at some point, I guess they were just working with the best tech available at the moment

I wouldn’t work anything in the rain & as for output - well, that depends how big or how many you have, just like modern “conventional” equipment ranges from about 3 m wide to 36 m wide, depending on location & application

loading could be autonomous as well, as for safety & hazards - it seems the tech exists now for driverless cars in public roads, so I think a farm field has fewer hazards. The tech already is here to retrofit “conventional” tractors to autonomous operation,

as to theft - all I can say after reading numerous threads in TFF is thank fudge I don’t live in the UK . . .

ok - they won’t be for everyone, but I can definitely see this sort of tech having real world applications & leaping ahead

most of the work here with them is FARMER led, not the big machinery manufacturers

yes, JD & CNH have their stuff, but it is just basically large cabless tractors, not a real paradigm shift

I'm certainly not against technology, I just think each situation needs to be evaluated separately. Newer doesn't always = better.
Mrs Pom is currently working with a Canadian company that uses aerial imagery for crop management. You'd think that drones being the latest tech, would be the tool of choice and they are sometimes used but it turns out for the area they cover its quicker, cheaper and easier to put up a plane every one to two weeks.
Sometimes people design things to solve problems that don't really exist.