Long before autonomous machines began to reshape modern agriculture, Dr. Danny Mann was exploring what many in the field had overlooked: while much of the research around automation was focused on advancing machinery, Dr. Mann was interested in the people behind the machinery. He was curious about how farmers were navigating an evolving technological landscape.

Today, autonomous tractors and intelligent farming systems are closer than ever to being part of the average farmer’s everyday reality. In this context, Dr. Mann’s work stands out because it focuses on the transition from traditional to modern farming, and on how humans and machines adapt to one another along the way. Through decades of forward-looking research and sustained support from NSERC, Dr. Mann’s work has helped shape not just the future of agricultural technology, but the mindset of the engineers designing it.

Dr. Mann, your entire career has been dedicated to agricultural engineering. What sparked and nurtured your interest in this field?

It was an interesting series of events. I can trace the spark back to my high school physics and chemistry teacher. I grew up on a farm in a small community in Manitoba, and that teacher encouraged lots of students from my home town to consider studying engineering at the University of Manitoba, which I did.

Coincidentally, the son of our family farm’s previous owners was the department head of agricultural engineering at the University of Manitoba. When I first met him in grade 11, he told me about this field and persuaded me that it was a strong career choice.

So I grew up in the same house he did and, years later, ended up in the same department. It’s almost like agricultural engineering was in the house I grew up in.

Your current research focuses on human-machine interactions—more specifically, autonomous agricultural machines. What led you to focus on the human experience?

Upon reviewing the literature for my first NSERC Discovery Grant proposal, I realized that people had been talking about driverless tractors for two decades. The papers all focused on the technology that would enable such machines to become a reality. I wanted to do something that no one else was doing. This led me to look at the larger system. I recognized that in the interim years until industry developed a fully autonomous machine, technology would be introduced into agricultural machines in incremental steps, and there would be an impact on the farmers who operate those machines.

I chose to establish a research career that focused on ergonomics and questions like this one: As increasingly advanced technologies are introduced into agricultural machines, what will happen to the workload of the machine operator? What impact will these technologies have on operators’ tasks? Over the past 25 years—my entire research career—I have focused not on the autonomous machines themselves, but on the transitional steps to that new technology.

There are four concepts of what an autonomous agricultural machine might look like. One looks like a current tractor and is automated but still requires an operator in the seat. Another is a machine that can operate across a field without a cab or operator. A third concept, being developed in Canada, is integrating the power unit directly into a piece of equipment, rather than having a tractor pull the machine. And there is a fourth concept that can be described as a fleet of smaller machines that accomplish a task instead of relying on a single larger autonomous machine. The industry is developing each of these concepts, and we don’t know yet which one will gain the most traction in the end.

What impact do you expect your research to have on Canadian crop fields—and beyond agriculture? 

Many of my colleagues in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba lead research programs that farmers are applying on a practical level. But my research is a little different. It would be applied by manufacturing companies that design agricultural machines. It has been challenging to collaborate with the industry over the years because my research was perhaps a bit ahead of its time. But now that the technology is getting close enough to automation, I am seeing a little bit more recognition for the type of research I do.

I believe my greatest contribution is the fact that my students, who are now working in the industry, are bringing a specific mindset to the workforce and to the design of autonomous machines: they are thinking of the machine from a system perspective and considering how the human and the machine work together.

Your connection to NSERC goes back to the 1990s, when you first received an Undergraduate Student Research Award. You went on to receive many Discovery Grants, among other NSERC grants. Can you describe the impact of this long-term support on your research program?

My success as a researcher can be largely attributed to continuous NSERC Discovery Grant funding, which allowed me to conduct research well ahead of industry needs. It meant that my research was not solely linked to the interests of industry at the time, and it allowed for advancements that could be applied as the industry progressed.

NSERC’s Engage Grants later allowed me to collaborate with companies that were interested in my input but unable to match a grant amount. Those grants provided me with a great opportunity to expose the industry to the type of research we were conducting.

You are also an active educator. Why is the training of highly qualified personnel an important part of your research program?

In recent years, I have developed a graduate class that is kind of a history lesson on the last two decades of my research investigating the impact of guidance technologies on machine operators. I aim to make a broader impact by passing along that type of information to any students studying Biosystems Engineering, not only to the students who currently work in my lab. The class provides an opportunity for me to share—and for them to learn—what does and doesn’t work in a research environment. I believe those who’ve worked with me carry this way of thinking into their work in industry, which is a meaningful outcome of my work.

My advice for the next generation of researchers in my field would be, “If you truly believe that your research is forward-looking and that it’s going to become useful at some point in the future, don’t be too concerned if it seems like it is not currently valued by industry.” That’s the purpose of the NSERC Discovery Grants program. It’s always tempting to get caught up in the buzzword of the day, but if you have a dream, if you have an idea that you think will have long-term value to the industry, stick to it!

This interview was condensed and edited for length and clarity.

About Dr. Danny Mann

Dr. Danny Mann is a professor and head of the Department of Biosystems Engineering in the Faculty of Agricultural & Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba. His research currently focuses on understanding the issues associated with remote supervision of autonomous agricultural machines to enable the design of an interface that facilitates information sharing between the autonomous machine and the farm supervisor.

Photo credit: Beenuka Pivithuru