Two Australian companies have joined forces with an agreement to deliver a world-first fully autonomous precision fertiliser spreader for farming.
Central Queensland based autonomous technology company SwarmFarm Robotics announced signing a memorandum of understanding to develop autonomous fertiliser spreaders with Western Australian based spreader manufacturer Roesener last week.
Roesener, known by its flagship brand Marshall Multispread, has made significant moves into precision application technologies, including the acquisition of Precision Agronomics Australia in 2018.
SwarmFarm Robotics CEO Andrew Bate said the collaboration would focus on the integration of SwarmFarm's autonomous platform with the Marshall Multispread and i4M variable rate application system.
"This is a significant advancement for adoption of precision agriculture and this partnership closes the loop between crop decisions, variable rate applications and autonomous farming", he said.
"We have already commercially released, multiple applications ranging from optical spot spraying of weeds, blanket spraying and mowing apps on board the SwarmBot platform. These are fully autonomous and unmanned field operations working on commercial farms.
"Variable rate spreading of agricultural inputs is the most utilised form of precision agriculture around the world, so the partnership with Roesner was a logical step to close the link between spreading operations and autonomous agriculture."
Roesner technical director Matthew Roesner said the development of an autonomous concept spreader was a glimpse into the future of farming.
"Where smaller, lightweight machines apply fertilisers more precisely and in a more timely manner to better match crop requirements," he said.
"The i4M Control system developed by Precision Agronomics Australia, our dedicated precision ag division, will enable the SwarmFarm integrated spreader to carry out variable rate prescriptions and capture biomass data on the run."
