MORE then sixty percent of farmers surveyed at a Darling Downs grains research update said that they would use a driverless tractor on their farm.
Kicking back and letting the tractor do the work may be the ultimate farmer fantasy and according to research, it is not as far away as may have been thought.
Research led by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and funded through grower levies via the Grains Research Development Corporation (GRDC) has been investigating global developments in driverless tractor technology.
USQ National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA) director Professor Craig Baillie said while it may be some time before growers were controlling their machinery from outside the paddock, autonomous tractor base technology like GPS auto steer, machine optimisation and sensors for process monitoring were already in use on-farm.
Concept vehicles already in the paddock
Speaking at recent GRDC grains research updates Prof Baillie said though many technologies still required more testing before they were ‘paddock ready,’ there were already automated tractors operating under commercial farming conditions.
He said all six major international tractor manufacturers (John Deere, CNH, Agco, Claas, Same Deutz-Fahr and Kubota) had developed key technologies that provided a ‘pathway to autonomy’.
Of the six major international tractor manufacturers John Deere and CNH seem to be slightly ahead of the pack, having released operational concept vehicles to gauge consumer interest and the application of this technology in commercial farming operations and environments.
CNH is the parent company for Case-IH and New Holland.
Growers comfort may hold the technology back
With 95 per cent of growers surveyed saying that they already utilised machine guidance technology, it does not seem a big leap to move driverless.
However when asked the minimal level of autonomous tractor system they would adopt 39 per cent of growers admitted they would prefer a person in the cab.
When asked about auto end turn and machine implement control, technology which is already established, 71 per cent said they did not use the technology.
“These figures reflect the responses we have had from wider research into grower interest and potential use of automated technology,” Prof Baillie said.
“There are still issues around risks for growers, even when it comes to those technology features that are already available.
“People are not using the technology they have now. So as with any new technology there will be early adopters and that will be what drives development in this area.” he said.