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Satellite Driven Farming Equipment
ravenousbugblatter writes "An article at CNN discusses how Australian scientists are using GPS to automatically drive tractors and other farming equipment on predetermined tracks. The technology is encouraged because it can prevent water loss associated with the repeated compaction of soil from heavy farming equipment."
I, for one, welcome our new tractor overlords.
Mike
It's the beginning of the Redneck Skynet!
"Do not hold strong opinions about things you do not understand."
They can't control the genetically modified crops with GPS. Then you wouldn't have to worried about your crops becoming infected with someone's IP.
This seems very cool and everything but I wonder how "automatic" these are and do they have any collision detection. I can't help but picture the tractor going along, hitting a kangeroo and then all hell break loose. Never underestimate the unexpected
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Couldn't the same thing be achived by simply not driving in the ruts?
-- I stole this sig off some old git
...Possibly this can explain those crop circles coming in from outer space...
This innovation should advance the artistry of crop circles immesurably. No longer must we risk capture and incarceration in persuit of out artistic dreams. Now our wildest imaginings can be realized all from the comfort of our satelite relay stations.
I offer a $100K reward to the first hack who can build me am etch-a-sketch driven combine.
This could also be a great help to reduce fatigue related accidents on farms. I have friends that are farmers and during harvest times they routinely work 18+ hours driving harvesting machinery. Often a worker falls asleep at the wheel and has caused thousands of dollars in damage, not to mention the potential for human injuries or death. These tractors could keep these routine tasks safer and maybe in the long run cheaper too.
GPS has been used in farming for a decade, and is fantastic for saving $$$ on fertilizers (liquid) and other farming tasks.
I was looking at this, and despite the funny jokes about a redneck skynet, and all hail the rise of the john deer overlords, I do have a couple serious questions.
In kansas a lot of the farmed land in the north western parts of kansas is non-uniform. People tend to have this idea of kansas as being a flat area, but the land is actually quite hilly in the western parts.
What happens if a tractor slips or loses traction? Or do the tractors simply not operate when it is muddy? How much error detection and fixiing do these tractors have. What happens if it finds itself on a part of a field it shouldnt be on, IE its transmitter goes out for a short period of time due to electrical disturbance (say freak lightning or something else).
Does the tractor drive across tilled land to get back to the spot (possibly destroying crops) or does it know to re-orient itself, drive along the right path, and then proceed about its task.
What happens if there is a hardware failure, is it possible to set a new tractor right where the last one set off, or does it need to go through the entire process again?
these things werent answered very well in the article, but are very obvious questions i think that should pop up to someone who read the article.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
I took a course in surveying a couple years ago at university; the US gov't has a masking signal they can apply to gps satellites to give purposely inaccurate data. It essentially changes the coordinate values by a random number, and the results can put you out by as much as 200 m. As soon as this signal was switched off, you were good to a mere couple meters. I don't, however, know how they're getting accuracy to less than an inch.
I used to work in a farm and I can say that adding altitude can give you a whole new perspective about what's going on in your fields. Over the years, there have been a number of attempts at using images gathered from airplanes and satellites to enhance scouting
These images provided some interesting views, but were never timely enough to be useful for making management decisions. Plus, the equipment was not readily available to make a pass when you needed it made.
The only option growers had for aerial scouting that provided immediate information was to learn to fly themselves. For most, the cost of flying lessons and airplanes meant that wasn't a very practical option.
Now new technology is opening the door for more immediate, more useful aerial information about your crops. And if you just want to fly over your fields to see how they look from above, that's becoming easier and more affordable, too.
After years of promise that satellites would revolutionize crop scouting, recent developments are turning promise into reality.
Aerial photos can be especially useful for mapping fields in remote areas. A group of ranchers and groups interested in resource management in Wyoming have been working together the past five years to gather aerial images of rangeland in areas that are not readily accessible by ground.
It can be used like in WHIPP program, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Lake DeSmet Conservation District are using aerial imagery to map leafy spurge locations in a 54,000-acre area.
Leafy spurge is a perennial noxious weed that's spreading on rangelands. Cattle won't eat it and herbicides provide inconsistent control so they're trying to develop an integrated weed management program.
Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
I work for Cat dealer and I was told about this some months ago by our Agriculture Manager. It's already offered in the Challenger MT700 models. In fact there are already quite a few in operation. And oh by the way, John Deere (enemy!), is also offering it in some models.
Depending on how much you want to spend on these tractors you can have an accuracy down to 8 inches per pass in the field.
Of course when he told me this all I could think of was Evil Plan #234.
1. Hack the Omnistar system.
2. Assume control of all Challenger tractors in Indiana.
3. Plow under Terre Haute.
Hey we all have our own little dreams...
Be careful about how the "Home" button's programmed.