The robot can be outfitted with multiple attachments such as a cell-sprayer that can spray pesticides or fertilizers and can even weed areas intertwined with the crops. It’s able to do so with the help of strategically positioned cameras that take pictures of the ground, which are then sent to an onboard computer that analyzes the images and identifies both the crops and weeds (programmed with 20 known species per geographic area).
Once the unwanted plants are identified, it can then spray an herbicide through a row of nozzles placed next to the cameras positioned behind the bot. The cameras look for the corresponding image and either open or close the nozzles based on the weeds' location. With a large range of add-on tools, this robot makes a perfect plant-nursing platform that’s able to keep plants healthy, one column at a time.
Robots are even being employed to harvest crops, further maximizing the efficiency associated with robotic farmers. One such robot is known as the Robotic Strawberry Harvester from Robotic Harvesting LLC. The mechanical farmhand is autonomous in the true sense of the word and is self-propelled, navigating and harvesting, and as the name suggests, is excellent in picking ripe strawberries. Robot harvesting outfitted the robot with a camera array capable of taking "stereovision" photos both above and below the plants leaves to collect data on fruit (whether it’s ripe or not), flower count, plant pathogens (diseases), and other items of interest.
The camera system can be reprogrammed to identify and collect data on a number of crops in 3D space (giving the robot the capability to see like humans) not just strawberries, and uses specialized software to discern whether the fruit is ripe. Once identified, the robot uses a three-pronged outfitted robotic arm to pick the fruit, which is then placed on a convenient tiny conveyor belt that drops the fruit off in a collection basket on top of the robot.
This may not seem like much, but the robot is capable of picking the fruit (tested in a controlled environment) in as little as two seconds. While you most likely won't see a fully functional efficient farm being run entirely by robots anytime in the next few years, it’s safe to say it certainly is a possibility in the near future. As more and more people populate the planet, using robotic farmers is certainly a viable option in cultivating, nurturing, and harvesting increased food crops in an efficient manner.
Fascinating post Cabe. This article is very timely for me because I have just been asked to consider a project that will (hopefully) mechanize the planting of Miscanthus X-- 10,000 acres. Miscanthus is a plant that is used to generate biofuel so food-products can still be used for consumption. I know we are some years away from robotic planting, at least on the scale I need right now, but your article does provide very interesting possibilities. Again, many thanks for the post.
I agree, Jmiller. On corporate farms, a good deal of jobs have been displaced. And it's probably just as well. They were not great jobs for health or for satisfaction.
In a lot of ways so many farming jobs have already been lost due to the size of the machinery and the automation of different tasks. It would be interesting to see how many jobs have already been lost due to technology. At the same time, this technology is increasing the amount of food being grown with less people and less energy.
You do make a good point. Often areas of a crop might be pickable while others are not. And it will take time to develop a way for the robots to differentiate from ready fruit to non ready fruit.
I agree most likely the next steps will be to incorporate current machines with newer technlogies. Right now we see a lot of GPS and mapping of yields and soils types and some use of automation to cntrol vehicles. I don't think it will be long before the tractors will drive themselves.
Thought is the movie The Matrix comes to mind with robotic farming. The bots toiled in fields of their "human-batteries." Upscale the bots, and they will do just that, but with soy-beans.. not the human race.
Good points, Cabe. The displacement of jobs can have a dreary effect. And you're right that even intellectual jobs can be less than exciting. Sometimes I think that writing is manual labor of the mind.
Even though these jobs are soul-crushing. I have to admit, I felt more crushed in many of the engineering jobs I've had. At the time, I fantasized about doing manual labor jobs at those times.
All those printing press people, elevator operators, not all of them recovered. They instead just lost themselves to annals of time. Never to recover. It's a tough world.
Good point, Cabe. Yet it's a long tradition of technology displacing workers. The printing press displaced thousands of scribes. Remember secretaries? Thankfully, in most cases, the jobs that are displaced are mind-numbing and soul-killing.
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