An unmanned rice planter, equipped with a Beidou Navigation Satellite System, swings into gear. [Video by Xu Congjun/ntfabu.com]

A cutting-edge unmanned rice planter equipped with a Beidou Navigation Satellite System debuted at a field on July 2 in Yumin village, Shizong town – administered by the Tongzhou district of Nantong city in East China's Jiangsu province – promising the shape of things to come.

The machine reportedly integrates rice seedling planting, fertilizing and spraying and can work automatically to a route planned by intelligent software and the Beidou navigation system.

As long as the operator finishes positioning and debugging, it can work back and forth with total precision in the field. With high efficiency, the machine can plant rice seedlings covering 5,333 square-meters of land every hour.

In addition to planting, it can also finish fertilization at the same time, slashing labor costs.