See Dot Run.

llamedos

New Member
Will surely draw the crowds tomorrow @AginMotion it is available for test runs there follow them @SeeDotRun quite a few different attachments being demoed.
 

Andy12345

Member
Location
Somerset
It will never work, things break, things block up, things go tits up! The same as aviation there will always need to be a human interface if only to monitor.
 

Pasty

Member
Location
Devon
It will work and it's probably coming faster than any of us think. In terms of breakdowns / blockages, it's pretty simple for a machine to detect when it's not working properly and signal for assistance. Probably it won't have as heavy a foot on the throttle as most humans so less will get jammed up......

I guess there are a whole load of safety type issues to consider. What happens when a toddler stumbles through the wheat field in front of the combine. A person might just see them. Will the machine be as good? Probably.

Most planes fly themselves these days with a human required to take over if things go awry and aside from that, we are only needed at the start and end of journeys. Apply the same to a harvester / seeder etc. and you've saved many thousands of man hours in a heartbeat.
 

Goweresque

Member
Location
North Wilts
Yes because mechanisation, bigger machinery, and lots of new tech has made farming so profitable so far so lets have some more! It can't possibly be more in the interest of the manufacturer than the farmer can it?

/sarc

It doesn't matter what new tech comes on the scene, or how efficient it makes the farmer who buys it, eventually all the benefit will accrue to the consumer, and the farmer will be left having to farm tens of thousands of acres with robot tractors to make the same amount of profit he does now from farming a thousand, and the same as his father made from a few hundred and his grandfather a hundred. All the while the machinery manufacturers and agricultural supplies companies will make fat profits.

When will we learn to stop repeating the past expecting a different result?
 

spikeislander

Member
Location
bedfordshire
I think it will come but personally whenever I think I can relax and not keep glancing over my shoulder , I get an almighty block or something goes wrong! Even with GPS I spend most of the day looking backwards.
It will suit other countries before it's a reality here.
 

Will Wilson

Member
Location
Essex
All great points - The argument about not making a profit has nothing to do with technology and I am not going to open that box.

Humans will be needed to monitor but maybe one for every 5 units?

Now whether or not society will be a better place if humans are replaced by robots - that is a question we will have to address very soon and comes down some fundamental questions about what we want from life.
 

Andy12345

Member
Location
Somerset
It will work and it's probably coming faster than any of us think. In terms of breakdowns / blockages, it's pretty simple for a machine to detect when it's not working properly and signal for assistance. Probably it won't have as heavy a foot on the throttle as most humans so less will get jammed up......

I guess there are a whole load of safety type issues to consider. What happens when a toddler stumbles through the wheat field in front of the combine. A person might just see them. Will the machine be as good? Probably.

Most planes fly themselves these days with a human required to take over if things go awry and aside from that, we are only needed at the start and end of journeys. Apply the same to a harvester / seeder etc. and you've saved many thousands of man hours in a heartbeat.


The automation in an aircraft is there to allow the pilots to monitor putting it simply. Many years ago there was a third crew member, a flight engineer, two pilots now do the job of 3. You say a human is required if things go astray, that is exactly my point. Things do go astray and agriculture is no different and I'd suggest that a robotic agri maching is working in a much harsher environment. The down time is going to be immense in less than perfect working conditions. I'm sorry I just can't see it happening, there will be uproar when the first one decides to take the scenic route on to the nearest A road, don't say it can't happen history has proven that wrong!
 

Y Fan Wen

Member
Location
N W Snowdonia
I realised how far automation had advanced when I read an account of an autonomous fighter aircraft in trials on an aircraft carrier, move from its place on the deck park to the catapult, take off, fly in formation with other manned aircraft, land in succession and park in its specified spot all without intervention.
 

Danllan

Member
Location
Sir Gar / Carms
I realised how far automation had advanced when I read an account of an autonomous fighter aircraft in trials on an aircraft carrier, move from its place on the deck park to the catapult, take off, fly in formation with other manned aircraft, land in succession and park in its specified spot all without intervention.
Carriers with aircraft...? There are going to be some red faces at the MOD.
 

Pasty

Member
Location
Devon
The automation in an aircraft is there to allow the pilots to monitor putting it simply. Many years ago there was a third crew member, a flight engineer, two pilots now do the job of 3. You say a human is required if things go astray, that is exactly my point. Things do go astray and agriculture is no different and I'd suggest that a robotic agri maching is working in a much harsher environment. The down time is going to be immense in less than perfect working conditions. I'm sorry I just can't see it happening, there will be uproar when the first one decides to take the scenic route on to the nearest A road, don't say it can't happen history has proven that wrong!
There will be problems, just as humans cause problems. Simple economics says it will happen.
 

Will Wilson

Member
Location
Essex
It will happen probably not in the UK for a long time (10 years+) - the market is tiny - and there will be phenomenal problems to overcome. There will be accidents etc. for sure and the initial concept will be completely different to the final product used.

But the idea is sound and achievable.

A fascinating article about something perhaps a bit similar - the tractor (FYI this would be two generations ago!) .

Also interesting last paragraph - replace the word horse with the word tractor.

http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/1st-february-1952/10/the-vanishing-farm-horse

In 1919, for example, the year in which farm-mechanisation began, there were 1,250,000 hoses working on our farms. Even by 1939, when the tractor Had become a common enough sight in our countryside, there were still more than 1,000,000 horses left. During and after the Second World War, however, mainly as a result of the great ploughing-up campaigns, the tractor began to replace the horse at such a rate that, according to the most recent figures published by the Ministry of Agriculture, the number of horses used for agricultural purposes is now only 432,000. In other words the number has declined by an average of 50,000 a year during the last twelve years, and as it is still so declining, unless suitable measures are taken in time, by 1960 only racing and riding horses will have survived.


Be that as it may, we have to decide—and decide quickly--: whether we are going to allow the farm-horses of Britain to become extinct
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
I was at a show on Wednesday in Kent where an unmanned tractor was going about it's business spraying.
Driver does the job once, tractor remembers it and can do it again as many times as you tell it to. This particular one was setup to spray orchards, boring as hell after a very short time.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 81 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 68 35.4%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.6%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.6%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,294
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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