The organization had nothing to complain about the interest in this demo day. The number of people who registered during pre-registration turned out to be larger than the number that could be admitted to the Agro-experimental garden de Peel in Zeeland, North Brabant. You may conclude from this that robotization is being attributed an increasingly important role in (future) practice.
How to proceed with robotics?
The information shown and the explanation provided with each robot provided insight into possibilities, technical specifications, capacity and cost price and the like, but did not provide any clues for an answer in which direction robotization should go. Will the field soon be populated by autonomous machines with capabilities and capabilities comparable to the current manned tractors, self-propelled machines and implements? Or is it moving in the direction of smaller robots, which together will provide sufficient capacity? What are the possibilities with that automation; will weeds soon be controlled with an autonomously driving sprayer, or will weed plants be pulled out of the ground piece by piece by small grabs that hang under a self-propelled portal frame?
When is robotization not a solution? Think of a self-propelled tillage implement that goes to work in the morning on land that is still on the damp side, and only dries up during the day. To this day, changing the tool settings still requires the skill of a craftsman. How are you going to combine that with a robot that can do a lot, but that lacks that necessary feeling?
Tractor without cab
AgXeed's Agbot managed to capture most of the public attention. The device was one of the few machines that really showed its skills, in combination with a three-bar Amazone Cenius 3003 wide cultivator.
