Following the successful Tay5G ‘5G Future Farming: Robotics’ project testing 5G integrated robotics; a workshop was recently held at The James Hutton Institute’s Invergowrie campus for stakeholders, demonstrating autosurvey and monitoring activity by The National Robotarium’s dog robot, SPOT.
James Hutton Scientific Services (previously, James Hutton Ltd) the commercial arm of the Hutton was awarded £150,000 from the Scottish Government for the project (on top of c.£90,000 awarded last year for the preceding project which led on to this one) as part of the Tay Cities Region Deal (TCRD).
The TCRD has also funded two innovation centres – the Advanced Plant Growth Centre and the International Barley Hub at the Hutton’s Invergowrie campus as part of a £62million investment by the UK and Scottish Governments.
The project has successfully tested three robots on 5G and proved that the new technology can be integrated onto existing platforms, and the same principle can be replicated on different platforms. It has provided 3 new use-cases for robots: 3D image collection for phenotyping of breeding trial plots using LiDAR, On-land ploughing with AgXeed 5.115.T2 machine and connecting first Boston Dynamics SPOT robot to N77 band 5G private network.
Robots, like tractors in the past, have the potential to address some of the challenges currently facing the agriculture sector, such as labour shortages, fluctuating prices and the need for climate adaptation, all while maintaining business viability. As an evolution of precision farming practices and in the correct setting they improve efficiency by reducing labour and inputs while minimising negative environmental impacts through a data-driven approach.
Agricultural robots can be utilised within a system incorporating old and new equipment to assist human effort rather than replace it.
Project lead for the Hutton, Andrew Christie, said: “Agricultural robots are now appearing on the market, but we need successful use cases to provide farmers with the confidence in their ability to perform in challenging field conditions and evidence to justify the cost. This project was also able to evaluate the enhanced capability for robotics offered by 5G.”
Ruth Plant, project manager at The National Robotarium, said: “We’re pleased to partner with The James Hutton Institute on testing the efficacy of 5G-empowered robots for the agriculture sector.
“If successful, farmers could utilise these cutting-edge technologies to gather and analyse acres of crop data at once, identifying issues and improving yield in a fraction of the time it currently takes.
“Working with industry experts allows us to trial robotics systems in real-life test cases, ensuring effective and practical solutions are developed collaboratively for the benefit of UK farming.”
The Hutton is at the cutting-edge of science, offering world-class research, technical expertise and scientific solutions across a broad range of scientific fields, including agriculture, environment and food security. It is committed to fostering innovation in both public and private sectors, advancing knowledge and driving impactful solutions for a sustainable future.
This project, which was supported by Soil Essentials and The National Robotarium, located on Heriot Watt University’s Edinburgh campus, integrated robotic platforms with 5G capabilities at the Hutton’s Mylnefield Farm for complex, repeatable tasks. Such collaborative work is instrumental in fostering innovation, facilitating knowledge exchange and contributing to a vibrant community within the Hutton.
In this real-world use case for robotics in research applications and agricultural settings, the robotic platforms provided a multifunctional base for a host of sensors and cameras for objective measurements to be taken, a valuable resource for crop breeding programmes.
High data transfer rates allowed real time streaming of the data, reducing the need for manually uploading, as well as allowing a much larger volume of information to be collected.
By adding the 5G data capability to SPOT and the other two robots involved, the AgXeed 5.115.T2 and the (former) Small Robot Company’s TomV4, the project was able to study the feasibility for the use of these robots as precision research tools, capable of capturing and visualising field effects and conditions at a greater level of precision and to a higher resolution than could be possible through manual techniques or observation.
The value of this data collection is in its potential as a precision tool for researchers and plant breeders.
Combining this with high-powered computing clusters, machine learning, image recognition and AI analytical models provides as an opportunity to harness big data for future breakthroughs in both fundamental and applied science.