Kumar joined Oliver as a design and manufacturing engineer in August 2006 with a degree in industrial and manufacturing engineering and mechanical engineering. He is an integral part of Olivers engineering, manufacturing and research and development teams to ensure the company is always moving forward.

NASA chief scientistJim Green recently said that he doesnt think the world is ready to find life on another planet. NASAs Mars 2020 rover is set to launch next summer and will be the first to collect samples of material from the Red Planet to send back to Earth for testing.

It will be revolutionary, Green told theTelegraph. It will start a whole new line of thinking. I dont think were prepared for the results. Were not.

Greens comments made me think of the topic of automation. What most people in the seed industry do is use semi-automated machinery. You can control the machine to start and stop, auto clean-out between varieties, open and close gates, etc., but there needs to be a human controlling those functions.

The next level of automation is a totally self-adjusting machine. These machines will be capable of performing virtually all the tasks that humans now perform.

Seed processing plants still require human beings to be stationed in the plant to perform various tasks along the processing line. Truly automated machines wont require this. Seed plants that are completely automated will have one or two people stationed in a main control room while the machines literally do all the work themselves.

No one will need to go down to the floor to adjust between seed lots. The machines will conduct virtually all the tasks now performed by humans. It will be a different world, and just like with life on Mars, we are not yet 100% ready for it.

Not just one part of a seed plant can be fully automated every part of the plant has to be, and it will take several more years for the industry get there. When we do, our businesses will never be the same but like with any new technology, we will wonder how we ever did it any other way.

Continued here:

Are You Ready for the Full Automation Era? - Seed World