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Vegetable farmers could soon protect their knees, and that's because of "Dino". This is how the French company Naïo Technologies calls their new weed-jamming robot, which uses GPS signals, various cameras and artificial intelligence to do the tedious weeding on vegetable fields fully automatically. And not only between the plant rows, but also between the individual lettuce heads, paprika or garlic plants. However, "Dino" is not only an orthopedic gain, but also ecological. Because if a robot makes the weed mechanically harmless, the farmer can do without poison spraying.
The high-tech apparatus - one of 40 winners of an innovation prize from the "Agritechnica" trade fair (10 to 16 November) - exemplifies the trend in agriculture: Digital technologies should make farming more efficient and more environmentally friendly at the same time. This can now be seen at the leading trade fair for the agricultural industry held every two years in Hanover. More than 2750 exhibitors show their new developments there, from the fertilizer app to the tracked tractor, from the weeding robot to the high-end combine harvester.
Digitization, automation, electrification and networking - what is known from the automotive industry and other industries also shapes the development in agriculture. On the one hand, the demands on agricultural technology are even more complex because it involves autonomous work under often difficult conditions in the field. On the other hand, there are neither pedestrians nor oncoming traffic on the field and field, neither traffic lights nor rules of priority, and this in turn facilitates the automation considerably.
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Technology innovations in agriculture: high-tech from the farmAdapting technology to nature is urgently needed. Many manufacturing companies have recognized this, so that meanwhile even maladies such as over-fertilization or the cardinal problem of climate change promote the high-techization of agriculture. Hans-Werner Griepentrog, a professor at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Hohenheim, says: "In the past, some things have been exaggerated, including the use of pesticides, and new technology can help correct these aberrations." How it works? For example, with weeding robots that eliminate the need for weedkillers. "Robotics has something to do with organic farming," says Griepentrog.
Robots fertilize more sparingly
In the future, too, technology can help to end the widespread and fatal "much helps a lot" strategy. Especially since the previously common method of simply spreading fertilizer on field or field, more and more without effect. The reason is the increasing dry periods. Because if the rain does not dissolve the fertilizer and lets it infiltrate the soil, the plants have none of it. With new, highly-automated fertilizer machines, however, the soil between the rows of plants can be selectively opened and the fertilizer introduced there. The soil moisture below the surface is then sufficient to make the nutrients available to the plant. However, this only works by means of high-tech machines, which ensure centimeter-accurate work and demand-based fertilizer dosing.
Most of the innovations that will be shown at the Agritechnica are about sophisticated sensors. Cameras can detect in which direction the grain halves are bent and control the combine accordingly; Laser beams detect exactly where vines or lettuce grow and allow the implement to precisely roll past it; Radar sensors, hyperspectral sensors or laser scanners permanently determine the moisture, density or composition of the soil to adjust to seeding, fertilizer, irrigation or harvesting machinery. "Digitalization is the all-pervading trend in agriculture, but much of what is being announced is still a vision of the future." First of all, it's all about gathering and evaluating the vast amounts of data, then making them usable again for technology to do, "explains Griepentrog.
Why more machines can mean more nature
So far, the Big Data crop can not be harvested, but the trend towards "precision farming," that is, to a data-based agriculture, is clearly visible. This may also lead to "more biologization instead of more industrialization," as Griepentrog puts it. For example, if instead of a combine harvester with a cutting width of up to 32 meters, several smaller robotic robots would be used. Then fields could become more natural again, with trees, ponds or hedges in between, to increase biodiversity. Gigantic machines are only worthwhile on areas as large as hectares, as smooth as possible. Small and automatic machines, whose artificial intelligence knows the terrain exactly, can handle anything. Protecting the landscape through high-tech, so to speak - without sacrificing yield for the farmer.
At the moment, however, as will be clear at Agritechnica, there is still considerable need for innovation away from digitization. For example, from 1 January 2020, all new tractors will have to comply with the Stage V emission limits. Up to now, this has only applied to the larger models with an output of more than 130 kW (175 hp). This requires exhaust aftertreatment systems - which makes alternative drives more attractive for tractors. These are two world premieres at the Agritechnica: The first production-ready tractor with gas drive of the US company New Holland, and the first production-ready electric bulldog of the Swiss manufacturer Rigitrac.
If the tractor just purrs
"Electric drives are also becoming increasingly important in agricultural engineering," says Roger Stirnimann, tractor expert and lecturer in agricultural engineering at the College of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences in Zollikofen, Switzerland. "However, the challenges are greater than with cars, because high performance is required over long periods on field and field, and recuperation phases, such as normal road traffic, where electric energy is recovered when coasting, downhill or downhill, are so good like not at all. "
The second big trend in the tractors are so-called crawler tracks, as they are known from excavators. It does not seem like a stalk grows where such a monster has rolled over it - but that's a mistake. Tractor specialist Stirnimann: "Crawler tracks offer a higher traction with lower ground pressure, because the vehicle weight is distributed over a larger area." And of course, the classic tractor is becoming more and more of a central computer for all kinds of implements. Experts speak of TIM, the acronym stands for "Tractor Implement Management" and means the system of high-tech tractor and the attached high-tech implement.
The industry is doing great business
Be it fine sensors or rustic mechanical engineering - the industry profits in every case from the high innovation speed and willingness to invest of many farmers. The latter is partly due to a "surprisingly robust performance in terms of value" of milk and wheat, as the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) announced in the run-up to Agritechnica. This is good news for the manufacturers of agricultural technology. The VDMA forecasts sales of 8.4 billion euros for this year. "We will close the year with the second highest industry turnover of all times," it says under the heading "cooling, but not the end of the world". Maybe the formulations should be adjusted more to the facts.
In summary: digitization and automation have also affected the agricultural industry after the auto industry. Thanks to state-of-the-art sensor technology and radar technology, technical innovations such as weeding robots or novel fertilizer machines could solve many problems in industrial agriculture - and enable ecologically more sensible cultivation of food.