IT might sound far-fetched but the idea of using robotics in large-scale, broadacre agriculture is just around the corner, according to University of Sydney Australian Centre for Field Robotics senior research fellow Robert Fitch.
Dr Fitch, lunchtime guest speaker at the Hart Field Day on Tuesday, September 16, says robotics is set to "transform the way food is grown, produced and delivered".
"What robotics will bring is more emphasis on system-level optimisation," he said.
"Not just automating the current operations, but using information and automation to change the operations. We call this 'thinking beyond the robot'.
"The farm of the future will likely involve a 'system of systems' where teams of relatively small robots and sensors work together to collect information and perform mechanical tasks."
Far from taking jobs away from people on farms, Dr Fitch - himself a farmer's son from Ohio in the United States who chose to further his career off-farm - thinks robotics will maintain jobs in agriculture, and create new ones.
"There will probably be more people working in agriculture than there are today, but some will be in information-based jobs such as data analysis, and others will build, maintain, and write software for robot systems," he said.
Dr Fitch and his team have already worked extensively in the mining and cargo sectors, among others, and he sees agriculture as the next big industry to be transformed by robotics.
* Full report in Stock Journal, August 28, 2014 issue.
