Abstract

Kit will recap the fundamentals and history of agricultural robotics, explaining how this shaped the ideas behind the Hands Free Hectare and how the collaborative project was born. He will recap how the project ran for its first two successful years of autonomous cropping honing and improved the performance of the system.

He will then go on to explain how the project grew into a Farm with refreshed aims and highlight the achievements at its conclusion. Finally Kit will discuss the implications and outputs of the project, including economic studies and knowledge exchange activities which are shaping the future adoption of autonomous agriculture.

BIO

Kit is a Chartered Agricultural Engineer and Senior Engagement Fellow in the Engineering Department at Harper Adams University. His expertise covers a range of topics from mechanical design to precision farming and agricultural automation.

Kit’s research into “future farming systems” led to the ground-breaking and award winning world first ‘Hands-Free Hectare’ project, which established and harvested a cereal crop autonomously and which then grew to become the 35ha Hands Free Farm. Kit was named a “Rising Star” of UK agriculture by the Farmers Weekly in 2017 and was awarded the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) Presidents Award in 2021 for outstanding progress as a mid-career engineer.

He is current Vice President of IAgrE and co-chairs the IAgrE’s Robotics Special Interest Group. He is a Member of BSI Technical Subcommittee AGE/6/4, developing BS 8646, Use of crop robots in agriculture and horticulture – Code of practice

From planting to harvesting, no person entered the Hands Free Hectare.  The Hands Free Hectare has now grown to a Farm for which Kit is Principal Investigator.

Kit has a passion for publicising Agricultural Engineering and was awarded the IAgrE President’s Award in 2021 for engineering outreach.