and Players finds that vehicles for agriculture are undergoing a considerable transformation with a trend to autonomy and a debate about going from, "elephants to ants". Pure electric drones and wheeled robots are fine indoors for microfarming there needs to be more innovation in getting electricity to them in outdoor remote locations to enjoy greater precision, better driver environment and meet new emissions laws.

Near wheel motors are particularly favoured for the necessary vectored traction and steering but there are some in-wheel motors coming in too so, for example, an experimental Volvo excavator/ loader does the same job in a smaller footprint improving both cost and manoeuvrability. Switched reluctance traction motors are becoming popular off-road in LeTourneau monster loaders to John Deere agricultural vehicles. This is because they are rugged like the even-more-popular AC induction motors which are also advancing fast - the subject of one presentation at the forthcoming IDTechEx event. The reluctance rotor is not just free of magnets: it does not even need copper wire so the device can be very compact now that the challenges of the complex electronic controls needed with switched reluctance are overcome. The IDTechEx report, Electric Vehicle Energy Harvesting/ Regeneration 2017-2037 surprises with the number of new ways that electricity is being created using on-board equipment with more to come, from energy harvesting suspension to triboelectrics. Also see, Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles 2017-2027