Farming Monthly National September 2018 | страница 10

| On Topic
World-first Hands Free Hectare
project completes second harvest
The Hands Free Hectare (HFHa) team has successfully harvested their second crop using their autonomous combine
harvester and achieved unloading on the move for the first time with their ISEKI tractor.
he world-first project, run by
Harper Adams University and
Precision Decisions, returned in
November of last year after
receiving funding from the
AHDB to grow a crop of winter
wheat, with the aim to improve the machinery’s
accuracy and so improve field coverage,
ultimately leading to a more competitive yield.
Drilling misses fell from 2.82 per cent in the
first year of the project to 0.35 percent this year,
helping the team achieve a respectable overall
yield of 6.5 tonnes, despite a late drilling and
busy schedules.
Mechatronics Engineer for Precision
Decisions Martin Abell said: “We’re pleased
with our harvest, but our key achievement this
year was completing a rolling team. Last year,
we tried an unload on the move, but we weren’t
able to get out tractor close enough to the
Sampo combine because of the accuracy
issues we were experiencing with the control
systems at the time.
“We have continued to make improvements
T
to our system on the tractor, including adding
an auto-start so we can start it remotely if
required. We enhanced the auto-pilot in time for
drilling which led to improved driving accuracy
and therefore an increased field coverage.
“Thanks to these improvements, this year,
we were also able to run the rolling team;
unloading grain from the combine into a trailer
behind our tractor which was running alongside
it, which makes the harvest process far more
efficient and quicker to complete. This was
something we’d talked about doing before the
project had even begun; we’d laughed and
joked and said it would be the icing on the cake
and it was great it worked this year.
“We still had a little involvement with the
tractor through the remote control, just to
ensure it got onto the right line, but once it was
there, it drove itself to within a 5cm accuracy.
Our combine ran autonomously throughout the
cutting, and yet again it completed the
headland turns without a problem.”
Alongside harvest, the team invited Caroline
Dawson from local catering company Fodder in
10 | Farming Monthly | September 2018
the Field to cook fresh pizzas at the side of the
hectare, using ‘hands free’ wheat from the field
itself.
Jonathan Gill, Mechatronics Researcher at
Harper Adams University, said: “It was brilliant
to have Caroline with us, milling the flour and
making fresh pizzas throughout the day. It
really demonstrated the field-to-fork food chain
in operation; you can’t beat eating a fresh pizza
while watching our autonomous combine
continuing to harvest the crop in the hectare.”
But what’s next for the team that has
exceeded all expectations? Jonathan added:
“We’ve been working on this project for the
past two years to really tight deadlines. We’re
really pleased with what we’ve achieved;
starting out with nothing in October 2016 to
being able to drill with the tractor in May 2017,
harvesting in the September, and then turning
everything round ready to plant the wheat for a
second growing season in November.
“For the next year we’re putting a cover crop
into the hectare, this will protect the land as we
use it as a test space while we continue to
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