World FIRA 2024: what happened
World FIRA 2024 gathered 2,500 visitors at Agrobiopole near Toulouse on 6–8 February for talks and demonstrations on agricultural robotics.
- Dates
- 6–8 February 2024
- Where
- Agrobiopole / Campus agricole d’Auzeville-Tolosane, Auzeville-Tolosane, near Toulouse
- 🇫🇷 France
- Visitors
- 2,500
What happened at World FIRA 2024
World FIRA took place on 6–8 February 2024 at Agrobiopole in Auzeville-Tolosane, a farming campus on the edge of Toulouse. GOFAR organised the event, which is dedicated to agricultural robotics and combines a forum with live demonstrations. According to GOFAR, 2,500 visitors attended. The emphasis is on autonomous systems and the automation of specific field tasks. Demonstrations, commercially supported products and machines still under field trial are kept clearly apart.
Work rate was only one of the measures applied to the machines in 2024. Just as important were obstacle detection, the level of supervision needed and setup time. Power supply and behaviour when something unexpected happens also counted. For weeding robots, row spacing, plant recognition and changing field conditions were the practical tests. A demonstration explains how a process works under set conditions, which is not the same as proven fit for every crop or farm.
Farms weighing up automation, robot makers, distributors, integrators, researchers and advisers made up the audience. For a farmer, the key issue is who takes care of commissioning, software updates, diagnostics and support during the season. A robot can remove a person from one job while adding configuration and supervision work elsewhere. Where buying outright does not match the size of a farm, shared ownership or a service contract can be a realistic option.
World FIRA 2024 was a good gauge of how mature farm robotics has become and of the routes by which it reaches farms. Demonstrations did not amount to full autonomy or guaranteed labour savings. Visitors were best served by framing a single pilot task, such as weeding or transport. The aim was to note what a robot did on its own, where it stopped and when an operator had to step in.
Highlights
- 2,500 visitors in Auzeville-Tolosane, on the edge of Toulouse
- Forum and live demonstrations dedicated to farm robotics
- Setup time, supervision and in-season support under the spotlight