FRUIT growers were able to get their first up-close look at John Deere's semi-autonomous sprayer at Hort Connections 2023 in Adelaide.
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The spaceship-like machine uses Global Unmanned Spray System (GUSS) technology to move through high value crops.
Together with a combination of GPS and LiDAR (light detection and ranging), vehicle sensors and software, the vehicle presents the possible future of farming.
On a broader context, multiple machines can be remotely monitored by a single operator. It can move through a paddock or orchard with no driver spraying the inputs onto the crops as needed.
John Deere announced a joint venture with California-based GUSS Automation in April last year but the system was not available to Australian producers at the time.
John Deere production systems manager, Stephanie Gersekowski, said the sprayer captured plenty of attention.
"This really is the future of spraying in the high value crop sector, and we are delighted to have a unit on site at the John Deere activation to allow producers to see it up close and understand the capacity this technology has to transform treatment application," Ms Gersekowski said.
"Traditionally, using GPS guidance under orchards and vineyard canopies has been challenging, but GUSS has overcome this issue by developing several additional technologies, including vehicle sensors and software to supplement GPS and guide GUSS safely and efficiently through crops."
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GUSS chief operations officer and co-founder, Gary Thompson, said his company had just launched Herbicide GUSS that uses up to nine sensors to spot-spray weeds, meeting needs for in-row hygiene while providing significant cost savings to the grower.
"The whole concept is to have one person supervising the vehicles from the safety of a ute and monitoring anywhere from one to eight of these machines at a time," Mr Thompson said.
"It's a very efficient solution to address labour challenges where lack of workforce is an issue, and we are very excited about bringing this machine to more parts of Australia.
"Being fully robotic and controlled by a computer, the precision that it sprays with is also just phenomenal.
"It does the correct speed at all times and sprays the correct amount of product, turning on and off when it is supposed to.
"It doesn't double-spray a row by accident, it doesn't skip a row - it is just very precise, so it's better for crops, better for the environment and an all-around great machine that is really going to help growers with a lot of their challenges."
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