Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/907666
December 2017 WINES&VINES 25 WINEMAKING • A drone can cover more ground per hour than a tractor. Looking forward, development work is being done to program Yamaha's drones, re- ducing the need for an on-the-ground pilot. It's not a big step to imagine a drone pro- grammed to fly at a constant low elevation above the vineyard, turning 180° and shifting 8-10 feet to spray the next row. (See page 61 for more on drones.) Autonomy on the ground An interesting panel included a representative from John Deere, a company that's working on robotics and autonomous farm vehicles (i.e. driverless tractors), and Mel Torrie, chief execu- tive officer of Autonomous Solutions Inc., based in Utah. Torrie's company has mastered driver- less vehicles in a number of industrial settings, most notably in mining. A driverless vehicle is remote-control driven down a narrow, steep tunnel road; explosives are then robotically set into the rock, the vehicle is backed out, and explosives are triggered. It's far safer than send- ing a human driver into the tunnel. It would appear that a driverless tractor would be easier to create than a driverless car, since the former is just going up and down the vine row and has fewer patterns to recognize (fences, trees, etc.) than what is seen on a busy avenue (other cars, motorcycles, texting teen- agers). Torrie explained that the technology is ready, but insurance liability is preventing com- mercialization of the technology. Widespread use of autonomous tractors should vastly re- duce field injuries and deaths, but the liability for the few that do occur could shift to the manufacturer. If no one will insure the manu- facturer, the tractor won't get built. ROVR: the Remote-Operated Vineyard Robot The most exciting vineyard technology at the expo was the Remote Operated Vineyard Robot (ROVR) from Digital Harvest, a start-up based in Pendleton. Digital harvest CEO Young Kim has an entirely different approach to solv- ing the labor shortage and dirty job/work- safety issues. He sees the problem as uneven labor distribution: There is insufficient labor supply at the farm location, but there is plenty of labor available elsewhere. His solution is to virtually connect workers and the farm. With reliable internet coverage, vineyard workers can be located anywhere and operate ROVRs using virtual-reality devices. Theoreti- cally the "work crew" could be in an air-con- ditioned room anywhere in the world, operating virtual pruning shears that instruct real pruning shears in a California vineyard. The vineyard gets staffed, and at a lower hourly rate. In addition, the workers are in a much safer work environment free of bugs, snakes, sunburn and rainstorms. To date the ROVR has been demonstrated to prune grapevines and harvest clusters. It is in prototype stage and looks like a golf cart equipped with robotic shears and clamps, plus several cameras. Digital Harvest is working closely with Yamaha, which graciously sup- plied the driverless "golf cart" and provided access to its robotic engineering team—an additional benefit of having such a big player involved in emerging farm technology. Kim's plans for the ROVR will include most vineyard tasks such as pruning, shoot thinning, sucker- ing, wire lifting, fruit thinning and harvesting. Of these, the only one that is currently auto- mated is harvesting, but it requires a fairly expensive piece of equipment. The trade show also had a number of in- novative, commercially available products. I liked UBCO's electric "dirt bike," a simplified motorcycle that seemed ideal for modern vine- yard monitoring and grape sampling. It has WHY PENDLETON IS A TECH HUB FOR AGRICULTURE H ow does a symposium about cutting-edge, futuristic farming end up in Pendleton, an Eastern Oregon town of 16,000 best known for its wool clothing and rodeos? There are three reasons. The first is location: Pendleton is located in the Columbia Basin, an enormous and diverse agricultural region that starts in southern Alberta and British Co- lumbia, and extends to include Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon and most of Idaho. The total value of farm products from the region is more than $30 billion annually. If you want to test innovative farming concepts, it is the right place to try it on just about any- thing—including apples, grapes, potatoes, onions, cherries, leeks and soft white wheat. The second reason is the town's proximity to the Pendleton UAS (unmanned aircraft sys- tems, or drones) test range. Originally used as a training site for the U.S. Air Force, where the Doolittle Raiders trained for their historic 1942 Tokyo air strike, this may be the world's largest and most comprehensive UAS proving ground. It has clear weather on most days, a dedicated 2,800-foot UAS airstrip and a full-service UAS operating area with power, water and data con- nections. Those using the site have access to 14,000 square miles of restricted airspace—an area 32% larger than the state of Massachusetts, or (for you North Coast growers who seldom leave the area) six times the combined area of Napa and Sonoma counties. Local support: This summer marked the fifth Future Farm Expo. The first was started with a grant from SOAR Oregon, a statewide, nonprofit economic development organiza- tion focused on the development of the unmanned aircraft systems industry in Oregon. This small amount of government seed money allowed the event to "get off the ground" (apologies for the pun) and led to the formation of the FutureFarm Tech Ag Accelerator program, which as- sists farm technol- ogy startups. Add in the passion of event organizers like Jeff Lorton and support of local colleges, and that's how a little town in Eastern Oregon is fast becoming the hub of future farm technology. Pendleton is home to a test range for unmanned aircraft. This unmanned tractor from ASI Robotics is proof the technology for driverless tractors exists. • Boise Walla Walla • • Seatlle • Portland • Pendleton Pendleton UAS Range