Victor Hugo famously said: “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
The signs are clear: it is time for autonomy on our farms. With every major equipment company making some type of move into this category, the debate has ceased to center around “if” autonomy happens or “when” it is brought to market.
Those two questions are being so rapidly bypassed with every new entry into this space that the question today truly centers on “how” we will deliver this new method of farming. In fact, the question in the back of everyone’s mind goes something like this: is autonomy really a new farming system, or are we just getting rid of the driver?
I believe that we do, in fact, need a new farming system — one that I am calling “Integrated Autonomy.”
Integrated Autonomy is a different approach to autonomy on-farm that provides more than another driverless tractor or a niche robotics solution. Our approach puts the needs of the farmer first and creates a technology ecosystem around them.
Read the complete article at www.smartcompany.com.au.