“The basic economics of being able to have a robot that’s dedicated to spraying aren't very

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Agri Automation Australia's approach to farm robotics runs against the market, holding that dedicated single-task machines rarely stack up for the average grower and that a robot only earns its keep when it can carry a range of tools. The company is the Australian.

What Happened

"So we've got just under 200 robots working in Australia, which I think is the biggest number outside of the U.S." Those robots are working across berries, citrus, mangoes, nuts and grapes.

• At one macadamia farm, an autonomous unit was idling for about 6 per cent of its operating time, compared with about 34 per cent for a conventionally operated machine.

• He says that reality also includes the need to manage the transition properly.

• Clifford says Agri Automation can also measure the real-world performance of the machines because it has robots operating in commercial environments.

Key Details

Rather than building a machine around a single job, the company develops implements that allow one robot to handle several tasks. That flexibility sits at the centre of his argument against dedicated autonomous units, which he says struggle to justify their cost.

• Clifford says growers are struggling to find reliable workers in the first place who want to operate in the regions and hours that the jobs require.

• The driver for adoption in Australia, however, is not simply the cost of labour.

• In some berry crops, for example, a Burro can be fitted with mowing, herbicide and foliar spraying equipment, while also carrying a yield forecasting system that scans the crop during a spraying pass, with.

Why It Matters

A robot built only to spray still leaves the grower needing a tractor for everything else. Clifford points to the Dedicated Robotic vineyard or orchard sprayer as an example, saying the scale required to make the investment work is too large for.

• Instead, Agri Automation's model is based on using the same platform across multiple operations.

• The other big shift is in the recent rise in fuel cost.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• Continued reporting by FreshPlaza as more details emerge