Can John Deere become one of the leading AI and robotics companies in the world alongside Tesla and Silicon Valley technology giants over the next decade? That notion may seem incongruous with the general perception of the 185-year-old company as a heavy-metal manufacturer of tractors, bulldozers and lawnmowers painted in the signature green and yellow colors. But that is what the company sees in its future, according to Jorge Heraud, vice president of automation and autonomy for Moline, Illinois-based Deere, a glimpse of which was showcased at last January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Deere unveiled its fully autonomous 8R farm tractor, driven by artificial intelligence rather than a farmer behind the wheel. The autonomous 8R is the culmination of Deere's nearly two decades of strategic planning and investment in automation, data analytics, GPS guidance, internet-of-things connectivity and software engineering. While a good deal of that R&D has been homegrown, the company also has been on a spree of acquisitions and partnerships with agtech startups, harvesting know-how as well as talent.

Agricultural drones, self-driving tractors and seed-planting robots are among the innovations that could be key to future food supplies, as autonomous farming promises to produce more crops with less effort and less impact on the environment. Global farming shortages are affecting food chains globally. Last year the National Farmers' Union (NFU) in the UK wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking for the implementation of a'Covid Recovery Visa' to alleviate labour shortages across the supply chain. Seasonal worker visa scheme has been extended until end of 2024. The extension of the scheme was a key lobbying ask by the NFU There will be 30,000 visas available this year with potential to increase by 10,000 if necessary Find out more https://t.co/gsBU8Nca6W

John Deere is announcing the acquisition of a state-of-the-art algorithm package from artificial intelligence startup Light. For those of you wondering when driverless vehicles will truly begin to make their mark on society, the answer is: today. Up front: No, you won't be seeing green tractors rolling themselves down city streets anytime soon. But the timeline for fully autonomous farming is being massively accelerated. Today's purchase is all about John Deere's need for speed -- and accuracy, but first let's talk about rapid development.

The BoniRob is a multipurpose robotic platform for agricultural applications featuring independently steerable drive wheels and adjustable track width. Field farming is "the world's oldest profession," and not just because food plants have been cultivated for over 10,000 years. Its individual practitioners are old as well, the median age rising rapidly as young people abandon the farming lifestyle (the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports a median age of 58 in 2012, up from 55 in 2002, with other countries showing similar data). Those who remain face the same repetitive work of seeding, weeding, feeding, and harvesting, the tedium of each task increasing as farms grow ever larger. However, today's agricultural robots excel at repetitive tasks, letting farmers tend to more strategic matters.