Monash University and Bosch research the future of Australian Agriculture
19/12/2017
The most recent announcement of a partnership with Monash University has been welcomed as a collaboration that brings with it a unique facility. Both Bosch and the Monash University will partner to establish a space that will have as its focus the use of innovation and technology in agriculture.
Bosch Australia is still relatively new to Agriculture, but they are continuing to delve in. The most recent announcement of a partnership with Monash University has been welcomed as a collaboration that brings with it a unique facility. Both Bosch and the Monash University will partner to establish a space that will have as its focus the use of innovation and technology in agriculture.According to the Monash University, this state of the art facility will be located in south-east Melbourne at the Bosch Headquarters and constructed on a one-hectare piece of property owned by the company. This space is slated to be a “smart farm” prototype, and it rightly fits the description of an agricultural technology launch pad. The whole point of the facility is to enable collaborative research and partnerships in the agriculture industry.
The vision behind creating this facility is for smart farming techniques to be designed such as driverless vehicles, automated harvesting and sensing networks. The creation of intelligent farming is the aim as both the University and the Bosch Corporation see that the agriculture sector is facing challenges that seem to be growing every day – problems that emerging technologies can quickly fix.
The facility will be used for the early development of prototypes and will also be used for cropping trials. Monash University can be quoted saying “Enabling the use of artificial intelligence, automation, robotics and advanced sensor technology”.
Ken Sloan, the vice president and deputy vice chancellor of the Monash University noted that the collaboration with Bosch would eventually lead to the advancement of the technologies used in agriculture here in Australia and the world on a larger scale. He also stated that this type of progress would bring significant growth to the agricultural industry in Australia.
He noted how rapid growth in the population coupled with rising temperatures requires a doubling of food production which can only be met at affordable costs if we find and utilise significant innovations in farming techniques and procedures on the whole. He spoke of the need not only to increase crop yields but also to produce foods that are high in sustainability and nutritional quality. In using technology to meet these goals, we will be able to keep up with the world demand for food and also defeat the limitations of growing produce in a challenging climate.
Mr Sloan noted that the facility would be adding to the agricultural and food investments of the Monash University. It will join the Australia-China Diary Manufacturing Center, the Food Incubator and the Food Innovation Center. Together all these establishments are aimed at improving the future of agriculture.
While Bosch is relatively new to the field of agriculture, they have already started to make their mark. Bosch’s Global technology and manufacturing have in the last year made significant investments in agriculture technology in more than one instance. They recently announced a collaboration with Bayer on the use of “smart spraying” technology. In Australia, they have partnered with SwarmFarm to provide manufacturing and engineering services for SwarmFarm’s agricultural robotic platform.
