When Will Autonomy Move Into the Mainstream? State of Robotics and Automation Tackled Head On at Tech Hub LIVE
July 22, 2021 
Fully autonomous farming – Level-5 unsupervised mechanization – often polarizes discussions on whether farmers will adopt new technologies: Are they worth the cost, and are they reliable enough to complete the tasks needed for the farm operation?
While hesitancy persists, two major realities could accelerate adoption in the near-term: labor availability and the aging farmer community.
The average age of the farmer might be 59, but if you dig into the data deeper, the farming community will be managing a demographic shift in the next decade.
“The biggest problem in agriculture is standing in front of us and it’s kind of an uncomfortable thing that we don’t talk about. Farmers are old. Really old,” says Craig Rupp, CEO of Sabanto, a startup that is conducting driverless planting trials using small tractors. “Of the 3.4 million farmers in the U.S., one-third are over the age of 65, and they have a life expectancy of 77, so you can do the math. Another 1 million are aged 55 to 65. So, in 22 years, 2/3 of farmers will be gone, and that’s not far away.”
Paul Welbig, Raven Industries (on right), and Craig Rupp, Sabanto, addressed the state of automation in this Tech Hub LIVE panel.
Rupp shared his experience during the inaugural Tech Hub LIVE Conference and Expo, one of the first in-person events for agriculture in 2021. He participated in a panel discussion, “State of Robotics and Automation and What it Means for Trusted Advisers,” along with Paul Welbig, director of Sales for Slingshot and Strategic Accounts for Raven Industries, and moderator Matt Darr, professor at Iowa State University.
While a demographic shift might be happening in the next 10 years, labor availability and reliability might be a more urgent concern that could drive farmers to automate more tasks around the farm. That was a growing consensus among many speakers from several sessions.
The current labor market is challenging producers’ ability productively complete agricultural processes, and the more you can deploy technology, the more flexibility you will have to grow and thrive.
One example is Raven’s OMNiDrive, an after-market retrofit that allows a single operator to control two vehicles. It is commonly used now to deploy a driverless grain cart that a harvester operator can supervise and control.
“This latest leap in autonomy is probably the most exciting we’ve had over the last 40 years of innovation,” Welbig says. “Imagine a world where all the core elements of ag are connected, coordinated, and optimized, labor requirements are reduced, and safety is increased.”
Raven also has OMNiPower, a driverless vehicle that accepts multiple implements, which it purchased from DOT in 2019. And while it will be the platform of the future with the potential to reach unsupervised autonomy, Welbig says we should focus on the incremental automation of specific tasks, such as spraying or planting. Operator supervision will still be needed in the short-term to manage diversity of terrain and crops, but it will still reduce the number of operators needed with incremental efficiencies.
“We often want to talk about level 5, Welbig says. “But where the real value today is in 2, 3, and 4. Automation won’t fix every situation, but we can increase the ratio of machines to operators we have out there.”
Rupp added: “Autonomy isn’t an all or nothing proposition. There will be better candidates than others depending on the type of operation.”
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