Drone tractor ready

The ageing of the population, the large number of rural laborers working outside and the lack of food self-sufficiency are driving the Japanese agricultural giants to compete in the creation of driverless tractors. The first generation of Japanese robotic tractors is expected to start selling next year. This type of tractor, encouraged by the Japanese cabinet office, is also seen as one of the ways to stop Japan’s agricultural extermination.

It is reported that the cost of this technology is 50% higher than that of ordinary tractors. It aims to increase the effective manpower of Japanese farmland. Initially, this "robot tractor" would need to work with a manned tractor so that the drone could have problems and get emergency intervention. However, with the improvement of man-made intelligence, tracking and security technologies, more drone tractors will be put into use in labor shortage and open-air Hokkaido and Kyushu Islands.

Hiroyuki Ogino of the Advanced Technology and Engineering Department of Izumi Farm Machinery Co., Ltd. said that it is clear that Japan is very much in need of automatic machine equipment. He said: “At the turning point of the millennium in Hokkaido, each farmer worked an average of 18.9 hectares; today, with the decrease of the population, the proportion has risen to 30.1 hectares. There is also insufficient number of tractor operators per hectare.” Kubota also introduced driverless tractors earlier than the wells.

Some companies involved in unmanned agricultural machinery manufacturing said that after 2020, if paddy rice or potato farmers continue to feel uncomfortable when they are 80 years old, they could theoretically allow the driverless tractor to help plow, sow and harvest. Crops, these unmanned agricultural machines can even work in the evening, and farmers just need to stay in comfortable living rooms.

Establishing a system that allows automated tractors to work on uneven ground and steeply sloping farmland is complex, and it is also a challenge to “instruct” the subtle experience that humans have experienced in years of driving. But unlike driverless cars, robotic tractor designers don't have to think too much about the behavior of other vehicles and pedestrians.

A Japanese cabinet official said: "The severe agricultural situation in Japan means the establishment of unmanned agricultural machinery is very important." (Li Ring)