News

23 May 2019

Harper Adams Hands Free Hectare to become Hands Free Farm

Following the success of the Hands Free Hectare (HFHa) project, Harper Adams University has received funding to create a Hands Free Farm.

Initiated in 2016, HFHa wanted to be the first project in the world to grow, tend and harvest a crop without operators in the driving seats or agronomists on the ground and its success means the project has won a number of awards.

The new three-year-long project, run in partnership with Harper Adams, Precision Decisions and Farmscan AG and will focus on growing three different combinable crops across 35 hectares.

Jonathan Gill, Mechatronics Researcher at the university said, “This time, we’re moving past the feasibility study which the hectare project provided us with, to now a vision of the future of farming.

“We want to prove the capability and ability of these systems in reducing the levels of soil compaction and precision application.”

Martin Abell, Mechatronics Engineer for Precision Decisions, said, “With the farm, we’re looking to solve problems like fleet management and swarm vehicle logistics and navigation.

“We still believe that smaller vehicles are best, so we’ll be using up to three small tractors for the project, including our original ISEKI tractor, and a CLAAS combine will be joining our old Sampo.

“This time, we’re moving away from the perfect hectare and to real world situations. The fields will be irregular, there’ll be obstacles, undulating land and pathways.”

The long term aim of Hands Free Farm is for it to used as a testbed for agricultural innovation where other companies will be encouraged to test and evaluate their own technologies.

To find out more about the project click here.

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