How Can My Position on the Paddock Help My Future Direction?

GPS is the positioning technology of choice for a wide range of land-based applications. Since the mid-1990s GPS products have been on offer for the 'agricultural market'. GPS on its own does not appear to contribute much to improving agricultural productivity. Hence 'precision agriculture' has generally referred to the intergation of GPS within a total system that, for example, uses spatial information on soil quality to deliver variable quanitities of fertiliser. Hence, the GPS technology is just one element of a total vehicle-borne system, and may not even be the most expensive or problematic component. If crop yields do indeed improve through the application of such a system, then one would expect the GPS technology to be wholeheartedly embraced. Trends in the GPS receiver technology necessary for positioning at the few metre accuracy level will be reviewed. However, GPSguided agricultural vehicles place similar demands on precise positioning (centimetre to decimetre level accuracy) technology that mining, excavation and industrial vehicles do. Hence, precise GPS positioning developments in areas such as field robotics are expected to deliver improved performance for agricultural vehicles as well.