BBC One’s flagship Sunday evening programme, Countryfile, this week featured the pioneering work of the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology (LIAT).

As part of the show’s Lincolnshire programme, Director of LIAT Professor Simon Pearson, introduced the University’s Thorvald robot, which is designed to support a range of agri-tech experiments in the field. The image below is Thorvald being put to work in a broccoli field.

The Thorvald robotic platform has been built to perform a wide variety of tasks, including deployment as a multi-purpose light weight robotic carrying platform, as a sensor platform to monitor crops and soils and, potentially, as a platform to manage crops, harvest vegetables and for precision weed control.

Professor Pearson discussed the advancements of automation in farming with Countryfile presenter Anita Rani and highlighted the ways in which LIAT is leading the way in agricultural robotics.

Earlier this year, LIAT researchers secured funding through the Government’s Agri-tech Catalyst initiative to develop robotic weeding technology with Garford Farm Machinery, which also featured on Countryfile‘s Lincolnshire show.

If you’d like to catch up with the programme, it is repeated at 08:45am on Sunday 11^th December, and is available to view on BBC iPlayer now: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0852dd9
(The farming automation feature begins at 13:11)