Automation in Agriculture

ZetorMan98

ZetorMan98

Well-Known Member
Well lads, I haven’t been posting much on here recently just down to the fact there’s very little going on at home, but hopefully I’ll get back into it now shortly. I changed jobs this summer and spent it working in probably one of the biggest engineering outfits in Galway. I got to see a huge variety of work and worked on everything from sewing machine parts to wind turbine parts, an oil tanker in the docks to 16,000,000 litre fuel tanks but I’m afraid no photos as a phone was a big no-no on most of them jobs.:oops2:

Anyway, I’m back to college in Sligo for another year, and this year we have a project to do. :weld:
The brief is very open; we have to find a problem in an industry that could be solved using automation technology/robotics, and try and build something to solve this. Time however is limited so I won’t be building a new robotic milker or feeder :tt2:
So this is where I’m hoping ye great bunch might be able help me out a bit. I’m hoping to base mine in agriculture somewhere. Is there any problems that farmers (be it beef, dairy, tillage or otherwise) come across in daily life or even seasonal work that might be helped or made easier using automation or robotics?
Just to give an example, one of last years projects involved linking soil tests to a gps so that the spreader would open and close on the fly depending on the fertility of the soil it’s spreading on.
As some of ye know, there has been no stock in our home place for the last 15 years and while I’d be helping neighbours again, I’m sure there’s a lot of the ins and outs that I haven’t seen.
So any input would be greatly appreciated. Cheers in advance
 
ZetorMan98 said:
Well lads, I haven’t been posting much on here recently just down to the fact there’s very little going on at home, but hopefully I’ll get back into it now shortly. I changed jobs this summer and spent it working in probably one of the biggest engineering outfits in Galway. I got to see a huge variety of work and worked on everything from sewing machine parts to wind turbine parts, an oil tanker in the docks to 16,000,000 litre fuel tanks but I’m afraid no photos as a phone was a big no-no on most of them jobs.:oops2:

Anyway, I’m back to college in Sligo for another year, and this year we have a project to do. :weld:
The brief is very open; we have to find a problem in an industry that could be solved using automation technology/robotics, and try and build something to solve this. Time however is limited so I won’t be building a new robotic milker or feeder :tt2:
So this is where I’m hoping ye great bunch might be able help me out a bit. I’m hoping to base mine in agriculture somewhere. Is there any problems that farmers (be it beef, dairy, tillage or otherwise) come across in daily life or even seasonal work that might be helped or made easier using automation or robotics?
Just to give an example, one of last years projects involved linking soil tests to a gps so that the spreader would open and close on the fly depending on the fertility of the soil it’s spreading on.
As some of ye know, there has been no stock in our home place for the last 15 years and while I’d be helping neighbours again, I’m sure there’s a lot of the ins and outs that I haven’t seen.
So any input would be greatly appreciated. Cheers in advance
Click to expand...
c and f tooling?
 
Ozzy Scott said:
Crow scarer using lasers. Activated when the buggers appear in a yard. Meant to try do something myself, but obviously never happened
Click to expand...

I’ve been thinking about this,thought of using a pedestal fan with something mounted on.

EF259A4C-8223-467B-9EB3-62832BA5ED06.jpeg

Streamers,cannon from a bird scarier,water jets etc..

Bought a laser pen off eBay and it didn’t work.
 
Might be a bit more than a college project but a bale collector maybe even for small bales to start. A gps on Baler logs where each bale is. A robot travels to and loads each bale individually and brings it to a central location returning for the next.
 
ZetorMan98 said:
Well lads, I haven’t been posting much on here recently just down to the fact there’s very little going on at home, but hopefully I’ll get back into it now shortly. I changed jobs this summer and spent it working in probably one of the biggest engineering outfits in Galway. I got to see a huge variety of work and worked on everything from sewing machine parts to wind turbine parts, an oil tanker in the docks to 16,000,000 litre fuel tanks but I’m afraid no photos as a phone was a big no-no on most of them jobs.:oops2:

Anyway, I’m back to college in Sligo for another year, and this year we have a project to do. :weld:
The brief is very open; we have to find a problem in an industry that could be solved using automation technology/robotics, and try and build something to solve this. Time however is limited so I won’t be building a new robotic milker or feeder :tt2:
So this is where I’m hoping ye great bunch might be able help me out a bit. I’m hoping to base mine in agriculture somewhere. Is there any problems that farmers (be it beef, dairy, tillage or otherwise) come across in daily life or even seasonal work that might be helped or made easier using automation or robotics?
Just to give an example, one of last years projects involved linking soil tests to a gps so that the spreader would open and close on the fly depending on the fertility of the soil it’s spreading on.
As some of ye know, there has been no stock in our home place for the last 15 years and while I’d be helping neighbours again, I’m sure there’s a lot of the ins and outs that I haven’t seen.
So any input would be greatly appreciated. Cheers in advance
Click to expand...
how about something to go on combi baler that spray a repellent on wrapped bale that would keep crows away from wrapped bale in field
 
Cheers lads for all the suggestions so far
scoffcruddle said:
3rd party auto steer?

Drain finder/location app?

3rd party iso cattle tag reader linked to shedding gate?

A few things I’d like.
Click to expand...
The tag reader that’s sticking out to me the most of them ideas. I assume a shedding gate is some form of gate for organising stock going into a shed or similar? If it worked properly I’m sure it could be incorporated into something along the lines of batch feeders or creep feeders too with specific feed amounts for each animal or something to that effect? And possibly even into robot milkers too in time.

kverneland es 80 said:
c and f tooling?
Click to expand...
Pat Rynn Engineering actually. A good mix of manufacturing/fabricating new stuff and repairs too.

Ozzy Scott said:
Crow scarer using lasers. Activated when the buggers appear in a yard. Meant to try do something myself, but obviously never happened
Click to expand...
You’d be on about laser beams over the yard that when broken, set off a banger or something to that effect, or actually using lasers as a deterrent?

Paw said:
How good are you with computers/electronics?
https://www.youtube.com/user/FarmerBrianTee/videos
Click to expand...
It would be a very interesting project and very useful if it could be adapted to fit any tractor but given the timescale it could be a bit out of reach

aidank said:
Even Better........... in 10years time I think this will be common place.

https://forums.fast.ai/t/grassland-weed-detector/7635

Unfortunately I cant program, even though I was v good at Matlab 15years ago. If anyone knows where I could start with Python feel free to give me some directions
Click to expand...
The weed detector/spot sprayer would be another good idea and was actually mentioned to us as a potential project idea as it would hit environmental protection grounds as well as farming as an industry, saving from unnecessary spreading of chemicals and the cost of doing this.

towbar said:
Might be a bit more than a college project but a bale collector maybe even for small bales to start. A gps on Baler logs where each bale is. A robot travels to and loads each bale individually and brings it to a central location returning for the next.
Click to expand...
It would be a big undertaking for sure but even if it was only to develop something that gps logs the bales as they’re dropped, it could be further developed in time. I think the small square bales would be harder done than rounds as it’s easier put a door sensor on a round baler than it would be to track exactly where a small square dropped I’d imagine.

007 said:
how about something to go on combi baler that spray a repellent on wrapped bale that would keep crows away from wrapped bale in field
Click to expand...
I’d imagine it’d be a very handy bit of kit but I wouldn’t see there being enough automation in it to satisfy them. You’d potentially put a set of nozzles on beside the film dispensers and a little electric pump and just have it spray when the wrapping ring/satellite arms starts turning

Cheers to everyone for the input so far. It’s amazing to see what problems pop up in the daily life on a farm that would only require a small bit of technology and would make life a lot simpler
 
scoffcruddle said:
Watched loads of videos and lasers seem to work,I’ve tried with my laser level and the eBay laser pen,maybe it’s the wrong type of laser?
Click to expand...
You want to use the laser to trip a banger or something to go off you mean? You need a reflective laser like a photocell with a relay to trip and trigger the deterrent to go off.
 
For dairy cattle RFID tags which would contain thier number info on the cow, log them in and out of the milking parlour, calculate how much milk they produced linked to an app or computer program.

Drones are quite cheap now something with them maybe, like logging the number and position of bales in a feild or counting the number of sheep? Could use the drones camera and then some kind of app linked to gps and for livestock tag numbers or QR codes or something like that. Drone cameras have come a long ways and can pick out really small details at quite a distance these days.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top