THE JAPAN NEWS



 

 
Moves to automate agricultural machinery are accelerating in order to improve work efficiency and productivity, but there are still many challenges to overcome before such technology spreads to ordinary farmers.

In the middle of June, an unmanned tractor was moving around a 50-are rice paddy in Akaiwa, eastern Okayama Prefecture. It was stirring up the waterlogged soil and flattening the surface, a process done before planting rice. The tractor moved straight as if in a line measured with a ruler and turned smoothly.

The field is managed by Farm Yasui, a company in the city that is also contracted to do other farmers’ work. One of the company’s male workers, 68, was watching over the paddy.

“Farmers used to have to rely on their intuition and experience to make the course for the tractor, and they were very nervous about it,” he said. “It’s very easy to have it done automatically.”
  Kubota Corp.’s concept unmanned tractor has been designed with a futuristic form.
  The self-driving tractor is the SL60A, which was launched by agricultural machinery giant Kubota Corp. in 2017. Once a person first rides in it and drives around the edge of the paddy, the tractor memorizes the field’s shape and size. The tractor then calculates the best route and drives automatically, shoveling and plowing the field in place.

Normally, when a tractor is driven by a human operator, it meanders, which inevitably results in uneven operation. Automatic tractors can enhance the accuracy to a few centimeters if a device that corrects the satellite’s positional data is placed near the paddy.

Tadashi Yasui, 52, president of Farm Yasui, listed another advantage.
“If farmers can mow the grass or do other work while keeping an eye on the tractor, they can make better use of their time,” he said.

■Price, safety issues

The problem, however, is the high price. The SL60A model with a location-correction system costs ¥11 million, more than 1.5 times as much as a non-automated model of the same power.

Yanmar Holdings Co. and Iseki & Co. are also selling tractors that can be operated automatically under human supervision, but they are about 50% more expensive than their standard types of the same power.

Demonstrations with these tractors have been conducted in many places with financial support from the central government, but these machines have yet to spread. There are difficult problems to overcome before unmanned tractors can come and go freely and plow fields in rural areas across the country.
The most important thing is safety. Automatic driving vehicles must automatically stop in the event of an obstacle to avoid danger. However, the current accuracy of sensors is said to be difficult to completely distinguish between tall weeds and humans, for example.

A Kubota technical personnel said that efforts should be made to make the sensors more accurate and make them 100% safe. However, the adoption of expensive, highly accurate sensors could lead to a price hike.

Accurately grasping the movement of tractors and the situation in the vicinity from a distance without any time lag is difficult in mountainous regions where the communication environment is not yet in place. It is expected that the use of 5G and the high-precision positioning satellite Michibiki will expand in the future.

In addition, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed, such as the maintenance of farm roads that make it easier for tractors to get around, the creation of guidelines for ensuring safety and the consideration of revisions to the Road Traffic Law and other related laws and regulations if tractors are to be driven on public roads.

Kubota unveiled a concept vehicle in January that has a futuristic form without a driver’s seat. It is powered by electricity, emits no gas, and is equipped with artificial intelligence.

“The time may come when a tractor will make its own decisions and work on the farm at the right time, depending on the weather and other conditions,” said Shinji Sasaki, 65, general manager of the research and development division.

■Harvesters, mowers

Automated agricultural machines other than tractors are also being developed, thanks to the development of artificial intelligence and information and communication technology.

Panasonic Corp. is developing an AI-equipped automatic tomato harvester that it aims to commercialize as soon as the next fiscal year or later.
The harvester automatically moves along rails in a greenhouse. Based on camera images, the AI selects only those fruits that are suitable for harvesting and harvests them without damaging them. The company said that it is considering developing similar machines for harvesting other crops as well.

Sanyokiki Co. is working with the University of Tokyo to develop a mowing robot that uses a high-precision satellite positioning system to move automatically.

“The introduction of the robot is a great advantage for mowing work, which is dangerous and often under adverse conditions, such as during the summer,” said a staff member in charge.

Drones have mainly been used to spray pesticides and fertilizers, but there are also types with remote sensing functions that allow them to examine the growth of crops and soil conditions from the air.