P.PSH.1298 - Drover WOLF to Beef Australia 2021 – Final Report

Summary

In January 2020, HDT completed the development (co-funded by MLA) of an Experimental Prototype, the Drover WOLF. The Drover WOLF is integrated with auxiliary fuel tanks (doubling its range), and a prototype obstacle avoiding autonomous way-point navigation system.

In May 2021, HDT delivered the Drover WOLF to the Beef Australia exhibition. The machine garnered enthusiasm and set the stage for continued efforts to deliver value to MLA’s stakeholder community. Following the successful demonstration at BA21 a workshop was held with producers who provided further key insights and feedback on the possible capabilities of the Drover WOLF.

Objectives

Explore how the Drover WOLF can be used to:
1. Increase the productivity of cattle stations, primarily in Queensland, Northern Territories, and Western Australia through reduced labor costs and increased weight gain.
2. Increase the productivity of feed lots through lower labor costs, higher weight gain (by facilitating the delivery of supplements), and lower morbidity and mortality.
3. Reduce the loss of pasture lands to invasive species by eradicating these plants at a lower cost and a faster rate than current manual methods.

Key findings

• The public is impressed by the capabilities of the Drover WOLF platform, and want to see what it can do to solve their specific problems.

• The next phase should focus on delivering demonstrations of specific applications to local landowners and producers.

Applications of primary interest are:

• Prickly pear eradication (and similar woody weeds).
- Would need to be funded or at least partially funded by local, and/or state government.
- Existing libraries of invasive weed data already exist and could be utilised. 

• Tethered drone launch (or recoverable) for surveillance or supplement/fodder/chemical delivery.

• Feed Systems, particularly if they can transmit operation feedback and status i.e. amount of feed remaining. 

• Business case (BC) will need to be formulated to secure future work. 
- Value proposition of WOLF requires its use across several applications, and not any one-use case. 
- Producers do not want a different machine for every application, a single machine with a variety of attachments would be of interest to producers.

Benefits to industry

By showcasing the HDT to industry at both BA21 and a demonstration day with producers, feedback on the potential use cases and capabilities of the vehicle was gathered which will help direct its development into the future thereby producing the best possible product for industry.

MLA action

MLA is looking for extensive producers interested in trialing use cases of the HDT vehicle on farm.

Future research

HDT-MLA should leverage the work done to-date around autonomy, feed delivery, and other real-world applications, in the next 6–12 months. The next phase should focus on delivering demonstrations of specific applications to local landowners and producers.