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Imagine working in your shop or sitting in your office doing bookwork as your sprayer makes a post-emergence pass on a field 10 miles away. All you must do is click a button, and the sprayer takes over.
Although this seems like a futuristic concept, it is already here. A beta model of the solar-powered Solinftec robotic sprayer with spot-spraying technology made its debut on Mike Beard’s farm in Frankfort, Ind., in 2024.
“It’s all remote-controlled,” says Mike’s son, David. “So, the company rep can sit in his house in Lafayette and start the thing.”
Fondly named “Rosie” by the Beards, the sprayer covered 200 acres of food-grade soybeans last growing season. While the sprayer is not yet available to the public, the work it completed for the Beards was pivotal in helping the company work out any kinks and get one step closer to a public release.
How it works
Just like with a spray drone, this robotic sprayer takes a map and follows a pre-planned path. Once you click the button to send it on its way, it follows that mapped sequence.
It then uses spot-spraying technology to target weeds, using less product.
“It’s able to identify a weed in a soybean field and spray just that weed,” David says. “It only travels 1 mph, so it’s really precise in its application.”
However, once the 40-gallon tank is empty, there still needs to be a person to refill it. This is where the Beard farm was key in helping Solinftec work on a solution. The company is trying to improve technology that allows the sprayer to return to a bulk chemical tank and dock itself.
“That would be nice because you wouldn’t have to stop and go fill it,” David adds.
Key takeaways
Other than finalizing the autofill feature, the Beards say that the unit could be more heavy duty. The sprayer broke some axles throughout the season, which Mike attributes to its light weight.
“For our terrain and the way most of us farm around here, it probably needs to be beefed up,” Mike says. David adds that Solinftec is currently working on those adjustments to make the sprayer more durable.
The sprayer did a great job at controlling weeds, David says. However, he says, running one unit on 200 acres was pushing it. For anything more than that, he says, it would take multiple units to achieve effective weed control. He also adds that this unit would not be the solution for broadcast applications.
Next year, the Beards plan to test the model on double-crop soybeans. They see it as a specific tool right now that helps them raise non-GMO soybeans while reducing the environmental impact. However, they believe these machines potentially could replace traditional ground rig sprayers with more adjustments.
“If you want to talk about the robot space, I think there’s opportunities to replace your ground rig,” Mike says. “This is still a ground rig, but it’s a robot.”
WHIN connections bring tech to the farm
Staying caught up with new technology was something that Mike knew he would have to do on his farm to avoid falling behind.
“I’ve seen so much change in the last couple years that it’s not a big jump to look to robots doing the work,” he says. “It scares me, but I at least need to be familiar with the opportunities.”
With that goal to try new technologies, Mike joined the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network (WHIN). The organization covers 10 counties in Indiana and works to bring new products to its farmer Ag Alliance partners.
Josh Karshen, director of memberships at WHIN, shares that they put new products to the test for Indiana farmers. And they do this by forming partnerships with farmers who are interested in new technology.
“We want to work with progressively minded farmers — farmers who know that whether they like it or not, new technology is here to stay and can be helpful to the operation,” Karshen says. “As long as the farmer has that mindset and they’re willing to walk down this path alongside us, then we like to work with them.”
WHIN facilitates relationships between its Ag Alliance farmers and industry partners bringing new products to the table. From there, the organization shares results with other farmers in the alliance and negotiates a discounted rate on those products for Ag Alliance members.
This connection with WHIN made it possible for the Beards to test the Solinftec robotic sprayer. It also led to a variety of other experiments with new technology on their farm, including a new Telesense bin-monitoring solution. That technology eliminates the need for temperature cables in the grain bin by monitoring the air quality above the bin.
“We joined the WHIN group because they play in this field pretty heavy,” Beard says. “So, when I learned about this technology and some others, I thought it would fit really well.”
For more information, head to whin.org.
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