Farm visits, grower forums and industry surveys created an abundance of ideas on the potential application of automation, robotics and sensing technologies in field and shed operations with some common themes emerging. This ‘wish list’ was further refined at regional review meetings and during end of project survey interviews. They are in order of priority: 1 Automated crop health monitoring for strategic targeted crop management based on various vision systems, imaging and sensor technologies to improve efficiency of field operations and better manage production risks. Further resourcing to develop and test these technologies is needed. 2 Autonomous weed management for inter/in row spraying/weed eradication based on weed detection and identification using small autonomous platforms and various vision and sensing technologies. Growers and industry saw this as achievable in the short term and were keen to have QUT’s AgBot 2 and ACFR’s Ladybird and RIPPA robots demonstrated and tested regionally. 3 Autonomous all purpose, adaptable platforms that are flexible and suitable for a range of tasks across various terrains and farming operations using ‘plug and play’ interchangeable modules to spray, soil test and assess crop health. A step by step approach using existing platforms to test, develop and implement ‘modules’ of new technology might bring early benefits. Growers and industry wanted a wide range of potential end users involved in autonomous platform development and on farm testing. 4 Sensing and sensor networks for horticulture to improve field productivity. The technology has application across a range of field, shed and value chain situations including micro-climate monitoring in crops, quality monitoring and maturity testing, product tracking and vertebrate pest management. Some of this technology is already in use in agriculture, for example GPS auto-steer, multispectral imaging (NDVI), load cell yield monitoring and irrigation scheduling. 4 5 Robotic harvesting of tropical and sub-tropical horticulture crops – step by step approach – overlaps with automated crop management: crop forecasting, maturity assessment, vision systems, sensing, imaging, autonomous platforms, manipulators and grippers. This was seen as THE priority across all regions, as high impact but difficult, was the top aspirational response in surveys and the topic of discussion during most farm visits. It was seen as still some time off in the future and needing substantial R&D investment which probably explains the relatively low ranking. 6 Increased packing line efficiency – defect sorting before product enters the packing line. 7 Increased packing shed efficiency – automated/robotic palletising and product tracking. For shed operations, the key driver is labour – how to reduce but also how to use technology to simplify packing decisions for staff where there is high turnover and low skill levels. There was some discussion about what technologies might already be available off-the-shelf and the reasons for why these technologies are not more widely used. There is a need for an in-depth review of technologies already available, their application and suitability for horticultural packing sheds. Through the Lean case studies, review meetings and end of project survey results, we know that progress has been made in this area. Equipment is improving with existing graders and defect sorters re-calibrated and several growers investing in this technology over the past two years. Growers are also investigating and improving automated palletising operations. 8 Managing vertebrate pests in vegetable crops based on wireless sensor networks to detect and deter pests such as wallabies in tomato and birds in various crops. Preliminary work with CSIRO is underway with a small wireless sensor network deployed on a Gatton farm as part of the prototype testing component of the project. A small DAF innovation project will continue the work during 2017. CSI