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AGRI & ENVIRONMENT
9.30-10.00 Robotics in Agriculture
Professor Simon Blackmore, Head of Engineering, Harper Adams University
Developed agriculture uses massive
amounts of energy in a myriad of forms,
from the energy associated with chemicals used to control pests and diseases,
through fertilisers, to the tractors themselves and the fuel to power them. This
energy is often wasted as it goes off-target, is expensive and will become more so
in the future. Smarter machines should
use the minimum amount of energy to
turn the natural environment into useful
agriculture thus cutting out wasted energy and reducing costs. As agricultural
engineers we are continually looking to
find ways of making the crop and animal
production processes more efficient and
have developed the concept of Precision
Farming, where we recognise the natural
variability found on our farms and change
the management and treatments to suit.
This variability takes both spatial and temporal forms. Spatial variability can be understood and managed by creating yield
maps and soil maps. Temporal variability
is often fundamentally linked to changes
in weather over time resulting in the need
for real-time management. In industry, we
used to have a production line mass producing one item and are now moving over
to flexible manufacturing, where each
item is developed individually. In agriculture we can see a similar approach by reducing the scale of treatments from farm
scale, to field scale, to sub-field scale and
even individual plant treatment.
10.00-11.00 Precision
Panel Discussion
Agriculture
Professor Simon Blackmore, Head of Engineering, Harper Adams University
Mark Jarman, Operations Manager, URSULA Agriculture
Andrew Riche, UAV Pilot & Agronomist,
Rothamsted Research
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