[Luis Dias]

'king amazing.

When fully autonomous systems take to the field, they will look nothing like tractors. With their enormous size and weight, today's farm machines have significant downsides: they compact the soil, reducing porosity and killing beneficial life, meaning crops don't grow so well. Compaction also increases erosion by rainwater run-off. "Why do we plough? Mainly to repair the damage that we have caused with big tractors," says Blackmore. "Up to 80 per cent of the energy going into cultivation is there to repair this damage. Surely there is an opportunity to do things in different ways." Fleets of lightweight autonomous robots have the potential to solve this problem, Blackmore believes. Replacing brute force with precision is key, he says. "A seed only needs one cubic centimetre of soil to grow - if we cultivate just that we only put tiny amounts of energy in and the plants still grow nicely." These lightweight robots could remove the need for ploughing altogether, significantly reducing the amount of energy, and thus carbon dioxide emissions, coming from farming. And with less compaction, the soil keeps its structure and beneficial organisms, and is able to absorb more water and stay fertile for longer.

Link for the article in New Scientist is paywalled.

It's here however: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628882.200-farmerbots-a-new-industrial-revolution.html?



A short concept video:
http://bcove.me/ejqkqb5v

[z64555]

If they're trying to use GPS as a precision reference, they're gonna have a bad time... because it is NOT precise (ty military for watering it down for us).

Wheel encoders are also a big no-go, because they are inaccurate as hell on any terrain that isn't smooth, so they'll most likely have to figure out their positioning via optical methods or hook up some radio beacons. The video shows them working in a swarm, so they may be able to triangulate their relative position to each other and make a few rows with no trouble.

It seems to me that hexapods would be ill-suited for farm work as-is, mainly due to the fact that the leg system has a high number of joints where dirt can get in and cause some serious damage... but they do have the unique advantage over wheeled and tracked bots by potentially having the smallest afflicted surface area (regarding soil compaction). I'd like to see a version of the hexapods that employ boots to protect a few of the joints.

-Sleep post... so grammar might not be up to par.

[MP-Ryan]

GPS can be used in conjunction with wifi for relative positioning.  GPS is already in a number of pieces of famr equipment (combines, sprayers) allowing them to program a digital course into the machine for the operator.  It's pretty cool technology, and GPS is generally precise enough for those purposes (offset in most places is only 3-9 m).

[redsniper]

Pretty sure they'll be ruggedized if they actually go into production. The ones in the video look like just proof of concept stuff.

[Luis Dias]

Exactly, so we are talking 3 years to field testing, perhaps 10 years to actual deployment.

But think of it: all agriculture will be done this way (because theoretically it has convinced me extremely well), and people 40 years from now will talk about tractors in the same vein people now talk about asses and bulls and so on.

[MP-Ryan]

Exactly, so we are talking 3 years to field testing, perhaps 10 years to actual deployment.

But think of it: all agriculture will be done this way (because theoretically it has convinced me extremely well), and people 40 years from now will talk about tractors in the same vein people now talk about asses and bulls and so on.

How many farmers do you know? =)

Most of the ones I know are traditionalists.  It's going to take one hell of a lot of convincing to entice them to move to new technology.  I don't see it happening with any great speed.

[Luis Dias]

Yeah, I mean it's not like they use any kind of machinery nowadays.

(BTW, I do have farmers in my family and while I'm 100% urban, I do help in the tasks on my vacations, just to answer your rethorical question...)

[MP-Ryan]

Yeah, I mean it's not like they use any kind of machinery nowadays.

Any idea how long it took just to get that technology into widespread use in developed countries?  In principle function, the tractor hasn't actually evolved all that much since it was first built in the 1850s.

Advances are cool, but widespread adoption takes a while, especially considering capital costs of farm equipment.

[Luis Dias]

The gap now has shrunk some orders of magnitude since the 1850s. Yes, even on agriculture. I've seen it myself, new techniques and technologies that weren't available ten years ago are now considered "standard". So I'd say we kinda disagree violently on this one.

[headdie]

Having grown up in agriculture the issue with any new tech is the same as any other industry which is return on investment which is generally measured in years for vehicles. also it dont matter if it is twice as efficient if it is three times as expensive

[MP-Ryan]

Surprise. 

Honestly Luis, if you see widespread rollout of this technology in even a decade, then I admire your exuberant optimism.  You're talking about convincing a breed of the most stubborn, traditional people on Earth to change the very core practices of their business based on theory, without regard for capital cost.

[Luis Dias]

Thanks Headie, that's my idea as well. It's all about the profits, and MP, who said anything about "without regard for capital cost"? Clearly, leaving work for bots instead of people will be super sweet to any farmer's profits.

We are on the brink of wide robotization of every production line, be it cars, carrots or iPhones.

[MP-Ryan]

Automation still needs to be cheaper for it to take off.

You're talking about building a fleet of robots (a fairly large fleet per operator, considering the size of agricultural plots in some parts of the world) that need to operate in harsh conditions ranging from near-zero temperatures to upwards of 40 degrees C, in rain/sleet/snow/sunshine, be impervious to high-wind blown dust, and generally be rugged enough to do farm work.  They have to be cheape enough to be replaceable when a unit fails, or easily repaired on site - which will have to be by trained staff with some specialty knowledge.

Not saying it won't be possible one day, just that there are a lot of economic and feasibility hurdles that have to be solved first, and convincing farmers that this is better is going to take some time.  You've had to prove that the costs of purchase, operation, maintenance (human salaries and parts), and replacement total to a lower dollar figure than traditional farming, and the chances of that being done on a widespread basis inside a decade - or even four - are slim.

Factory farms might do it first, for obvious reasons, but a lot of crops are still grown outside a factory setting by individuals or small corporations spread out over wide areas.

[StarSlayer]

You can't tractor pull with robots...

[redsniper]

Oh? I'm sure we'll find a way.

[headdie]

Oh? I'm sure we'll find a way.

there is always a way 

[Luis Dias]

All the evidence farmers need is the big bucks going for their competitors. The hurdles are a matter of time. The costs should be considered alongside what they are substituting, which is generally a huge machinery fleet costing a lot of cash, and a lot of man-hours.

[MP-Ryan]

And you seriously see this technology being deployed on a wide scale in a decade?

[z64555]

And you seriously see this technology being deployed on a wide scale in a decade?

Each Hexabot is probbably around $1,000~2,000 each. I don't know what the average cost of farm equipment is, but if it's cheaper than getting a new tractor (both in maintenance/fuel costs and initial purchase) then you can bet on it.

[Thaeris]

Your endurance and speed with those robots will never work for large-scale farming, ever. An autonomous tractor might be expensive, but it would get the job done. You can also use the tractor for field maintenence, etc. Those concept robots, however, would only work for planting, maybe. I see that as a novel concept in networking and autonomous systems, but that's about it. For any large field operation, your conentional machinery, manned or unmanned, will remain the dominant working vehicle(s).