Unmanned Mowing Robots will soon be available in Japan
18/05/2017
Agricultural work in mountainous areas such as grass cutting is done manually. Because of the many slopes it is difficult to introduce a robot. At the same time, there is a huge labour shortage in japanese agriculture as the rural population is aging and the young are not attracted by the agricultural sector.
The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will work on the development of an unmanned mowing robot. The new unmanned vehicle is based on a passenger type mowing machine, but obviously much smaller. It has been miniaturized essentially by changing the power from engine type to battery type.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in a paddy field with an area of 150 thousand square meters in middle mountainous areas, mowing operation time can be reduced from 225 to 75 hours by using unmanned robots, allowing to drastically increase agricultural productivity.
Source: Robotics Tomorrow