KFAST (Kubota Fede Autonomous Spraying Expertise) is an autonomous sprayer idea for speciality crops designed to fulfill EU rules and targets of the Inexperienced Deal.
The KFAST robotic idea, collectively developed by Kubota and Fede, autonomously applies phytosanitary remedies and provides the choice of remote-control steering. Its structural design and newly developed 4×4 traction guarantee easy motion, exact turning, and correct positioning within the narrowest rows of specialty crop fields. This huge-capacity autonomous sprayer might be outfitted with numerous air methods to fulfill the precise necessities of various plantations.
Ongoing remedies are monitored and displayed on the Specialty Crops Platform (SCP), Fede’s digital agronomic administration instrument. As well as, KFAST sends alerts in case of incident or parameter out of vary, together with the detection of empty spraying and diesel tank to autonomously return to the station for refilling. As soon as the therapy is accomplished, all the information is registered, offering actual traceability and required data to generate the digital farm guide.
KFAST will considerably improve the productiveness and effectivity of labor within the plantation, since a single operator can handle 4 robots at a time and allows to hold out night-time duties. With goals to be an answer to the dearth of labour drawback, as effectively and the generational renewal, within the agricultural sector. Moreover, it improves the occupational security and well being by eliminating the dangers of accidents and drastically decreasing occupational publicity to pesticides.
As soon as the work order is acquired, Fede’s autonomous sprayer idea goes to the assigned row to begin the therapy. KFAST, outfitted with the AIs system, an modern know-how that performs high-precision remedies by picture seize and AI processing. The robotic adapts the spraying in actual time with individualised management of the nozzles to regulate the applying tree by tree whereas sustaining a continuing stress and utility circulate in every open nozzle with a homogeneous distribution and deposition of the therapy.
KFAST idea stands out for its outstanding discount in pesticide use and soil degradation, each key targets within the EU Inexperienced Deal. The system registers financial savings in using pesticides of as much as 40%, in accordance with the sphere checks outcomes carried out inside the Life-AIs challenge, which improve considerably when finishing up remedies primarily based on the prescription of variable utility maps (VRA). On the identical time, it relieves soil compaction by shifting solely 4 wheels all the time following the identical axis, decreasing the variety of tons supported by the soil and minimising displacements.
Moreover, the symptoms generated by KFAST picture seize provide up to date information on the state of the plantation, priceless data that can be utilized by third events to supply their agronomic companies. KFAST is distinguished for being an open system that enables the mixing a variety of service suppliers equivalent to pest detection, yield prediction, farm administration data methods, amongst others.
The KFAST idea, Kubota Fede Autonomous Spraying Expertise, has been awarded as Technical Novelty at FIMA 2024, a worldwide benchmark occasion within the agricultural equipment sector for specialty crops.
