Anyone who has spent hours navigating in a tractor on farmland knows its challenges. Besides keeping the vehicle on track, there are so many other things that the driver needs to keep an eye on. And with the complexity of modern machinery, a substantial amount of knowledge and experience is needed for optimum tractor and implement operation. At the same time, driving a tractor around a field is often hot and monotonous work. Ideally, we have to make things easier for the driver, whilst reducing costs and intensive labour.

Technological innovations can provide a solution to these issues. Just as car manufacturers are experimenting with autonomous cars on the road, and space exploration relies on autonomous vehicles on other planets, farmers can now send autonomous tractors on to their fields, operating them remotely or while sitting in the cab.

As a Japanese company, Kubota originally developed the Agri Robo to address the issue of maintaining agriculture in a country with an ageing population. With a shrinking agricultural workforce but the need to increase food production, growers in Japan can deal with both situations with one simple solution: the autonomous tractor.