Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, will return to Shropshire’s Harper Adams University in March to meet researchers and learn about the technology being used in its world-first hands-free farming.

HRH The Princess Royal has been the University’s Chancellor since 2013. Her official visit will bring her to the new Hands Free Farm on the Shropshire campus on March 27.

The farm is an expansion of the Hands Free Hectare project, through which university researchers grew crops autonomously, without operators in the driving seats or agronomists on the ground.

The Hands Free Farm is initially a three-year project, running in partnership between Harper Adams and Precision Decisions, along with a new partner, the UK division of Australian precision agriculture specialist Farmscan AG.

The Agricultural Engineering Precision Innovation Centre is providing the team with development space and project management support at its Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation Hub, also located on the university’s campus.

The Chancellor will be welcomed by representatives of the project’s main team and supporters, as well as by staff and students.

Parmjit Chima, head of the engineering department, said: “The Hands Free Farm builds on the vision of the globally renowned Hands Free Hectare project to use technology and automation to support farmers with a range agricultural operations in the future.”