Is this the tractor of the future?

Designers at Shropshire's Harper Adams University College have dreamed up their vision of a futuristic tractor with dozens of innovative features.

Offering a glimpse of what farming could be like by 2030, the engineering students at the university college, in Edgmond, near Newport, researched the future of farming, climate change, fuel sources and traction to come up with the design.

As part of their final year group project, the five students found that there will be an increased pressure on land use to generate food due to population growth.

The concept tractor features wheels that can transform into caterpillar tracks in the field to minimise compaction, uses hydrogen generated on the farm as a fuel source, has an Intelligent Implement System and autonomous mode, a track washing system and a lift to aid entry into the machine.

Student James Daniel said: "Through research, we found that a common trend amongst other designs was to increase the size and power of the machines, although this is likely to be unsustainable due to the constraints of current road networks.

"So our concept was designed to a specification we believe will be commercially viable in 2030, which is to maximise the amount of useful work performed per kilo joule of energy consumed. This has resulted in a compact and light machine with high tractive ability."

The team also consisted of Richard Canning, Ed Elliot, George Harris and Andrew Mason, who put in about 150 hours on the way to completing the work.

Mr Daniel added: "The project was challenging, but enjoyable, as tractors, agriculture and future technologies are areas of personal interest.

"I felt that we achieved our aim and delivered a tractor which will be a viable proposition by 2030.

"The introduction of emerging technologies and new systems will offer increased efficiency and reduce environmental impact and operating costs, helping to meet future world demand for food."

There are currently no plans for the futuristic tractor to go into production.

Dr Ianto Guy, head of off-road vehicle design at the university, said: "We devised this project as a way to get the students to think about the changes that would be made to the design of agricultural vehicles in their working lifetimes.

"We encouraged the students to choose emerging technologies that had already been physically demonstrated to some extent.

"The concept that they ultimately produced is both innovative and technically viable."

By Paul Mannion