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there is a huge opportunity for robotic in farming. Tech industry completely ignores it because it's not sexy enough!

by mars4rp 10y ago

jrowley 10y ago
I'd say it's not a particularly easy issue to tackle, but I can imagine a farmer renting a specialized fleet of robots to pick x crop and then another set of robots for y crop. It will be hard to create a general purpose robot for picking both oranges and almonds, but only a matter of time.
tobltobs 10y ago
or is it because a fruit picker working for a few $ per hour is just cheaper?
- mars4rp 10y ago
  hiring taxi drivers are relatively cheap too, but all big tech companies are investing on self driving cars. and because of all the investments and research we know we will have a working model soon. also investment reduce the cost. I can argue that cheaper and better food is even more important for the society and human race than autonomous cars, but because it is not sexy enough no one really spent money on it!
  - petra 10y ago
    It may be that innovations that enable shipping of agricultural products from countries with cheap labor will be cheaper than robots.
  - tobltobs 10y ago
    Is all this investment in self driving cars done to replace taxi drivers? Will food get cheaper if picked by robots? And even if, what the use of it if nobody can pay the cheaper prices anymore, because they don't have work anymore, because their work is done by robots? Do you really think big money does decide by sexiness of the product where to invest? Like some JS Hippster selects a framework?
    - mars4rp 10y ago
      yes absolutely I believe that is how investments get decided on big corporations. think about it, the only goal of any CEO is to drive the stock price up. investing on sexy projects create hype and drives the stock prices up, the more you get media coverage about your new project and more people here about it, there going to be more investors and stock prices are going higher !
  - kmicklas 10y ago
    > because of all the investments and research we know we will have a working model soon This definitely does not follow.
- MBCook 10y ago
  A lot of crops are mechanized. Wheat, corn, many nuts, some kinds of vegetables, some fruits. But as the article points out there are some crops that are just too delicate to harvest mechanically without destroying too much (or basically all) of it, so it's not economical. If your choice is $50k for labor on a $100k of crop or a large upfront investment plus $0 labor and only 10% of your $100k crop is harvestable... the choice is obvious. (all numbers made up)
  - jelliclesfarm 10y ago
    true. field harvesting machines are fascinating. fruit trees are different. nut tree shakers are already pretty common but they are highly polluting...raising clouds of dust. most people dont know how destructive large scale commercial farming is to the environment. gilroy, salinas, central valley...fresno, modesto, stockton...the air quality is the worst. as is water pollution. and farm workers and their children have the worst diets in the country. and they are worst paid...and most vulnerable. declining quality of life and poor health of an entire underclass of the population IS costly. when the children of farm workers are at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes before they hit their teens, its a problem. its not luddite to replace farm workers with machines. i cant even...ugh. we need machines. we need farming robots. it is the right thing to do. i am a tiny tiny farm...but the farms that feed the world sprawl over thousands and thousands of acres. they are ginormous and its a mess, frankly. while many tasks in most farms is mechanised, there is certainly a price for it. the advantage to robot farm workers is that they can put in more hours, can self power themselves(we will see this in the future), clean energy, wear and tear can be repaired.
- modeless 10y ago
  No. My dad is a peach farmer. Human workers are more expensive than automation, but not only that: they are difficult to find and come with tons of regulation and legal risk. Peach harvesting machines exist and my dad would love to use them, however they bruise the peaches too much to be used. Current machines simply shake the tree and let all the peaches fall into a net. Also, those machines are single purpose but picking is not the only labor intensive task. Thinning, propping, and pruning also require a lot of labor. GP has been downvoted, but I think they're right to some extent. There is huge potential for robotics in farming, and although some projects exist I think there is underinvestment relative to other areas. Some of the most advanced and productive farms in the world are less than two hours drive from the heart of Silicon Valley, yet I see no collaboration there.
searine 10y ago
>Tech industry completely ignores it because it's not sexy enough! Tech ignores it because the profits are razor thin. It's hard to improve on sun+dirt+human hands.
- tropo 10y ago
  I'd pay more for food that has never been exposed to animals. This includes humans, birds, rodents, bugs... and their manure too of course. The store counts too. Seal it before it leaves the greenhouse.
jobu 10y ago
> Tech industry completely ignores it because it's not sexy enough! More like tech journalism ignores it. There's already been a ton of investment in farm automation. John Deere Autonomous Tractor - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh2O0c9VBO0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh2O0c9VBO0 Agrobot Strawberry Harvester - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT351pQHfI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT351pQHfI Ferrari RemoWeed - http://www.ferraricostruzioni.com/en/series/remoweed http://www.ferraricostruzioni.com/en/series/remoweed Agricultural Drones - http://www.precisiondrone.com/ http://www.precisiondrone.com/ Lely's Automated Milking Machine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYg0haya28I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYg0haya28I
bsder 10y ago
The tech industry ignores it because it will never return the home run that VC capital needs. Merely profitable businesses don't fit into the tech ecosystem very well.
- beat 10y ago
  Most of the tech industry is "merely profitable businesses". Unicorns are for VCs and little girls who still believe in stories.

there is a huge opportunity for robotic in farming. Tech industry completely ignores it because it's not sexy enough!

by mars4rp 10y ago

there is a huge opportunity for robotic in farming. Tech industry completely ignores it because it's not sexy enough!

I'd say it's not a particularly easy issue to tackle, but I can imagine a farmer renting a specialized fleet of robots to pick x crop and then another set of robots for y crop. It will be hard to create a general purpose robot for picking both oranges and almonds, but only a matter of time.

tobltobs 10y ago

or is it because a fruit picker working for a few $ per hour is just cheaper?

mars4rp 10y ago
hiring taxi drivers are relatively cheap too, but all big tech companies are investing on self driving cars. and because of all the investments and research we know we will have a working model soon. also investment reduce the cost. I can argue that cheaper and better food is even more important for the society and human race than autonomous cars, but because it is not sexy enough no one really spent money on it!
- petra 10y ago
  It may be that innovations that enable shipping of agricultural products from countries with cheap labor will be cheaper than robots.
- tobltobs 10y ago
  Is all this investment in self driving cars done to replace taxi drivers? Will food get cheaper if picked by robots? And even if, what the use of it if nobody can pay the cheaper prices anymore, because they don't have work anymore, because their work is done by robots? Do you really think big money does decide by sexiness of the product where to invest? Like some JS Hippster selects a framework?
  - mars4rp 10y ago
    yes absolutely I believe that is how investments get decided on big corporations. think about it, the only goal of any CEO is to drive the stock price up. investing on sexy projects create hype and drives the stock prices up, the more you get media coverage about your new project and more people here about it, there going to be more investors and stock prices are going higher !
- kmicklas 10y ago
  > because of all the investments and research we know we will have a working model soon This definitely does not follow.
MBCook 10y ago
A lot of crops are mechanized. Wheat, corn, many nuts, some kinds of vegetables, some fruits. But as the article points out there are some crops that are just too delicate to harvest mechanically without destroying too much (or basically all) of it, so it's not economical. If your choice is $50k for labor on a $100k of crop or a large upfront investment plus $0 labor and only 10% of your $100k crop is harvestable... the choice is obvious. (all numbers made up)
- jelliclesfarm 10y ago
  true. field harvesting machines are fascinating. fruit trees are different. nut tree shakers are already pretty common but they are highly polluting...raising clouds of dust. most people dont know how destructive large scale commercial farming is to the environment. gilroy, salinas, central valley...fresno, modesto, stockton...the air quality is the worst. as is water pollution. and farm workers and their children have the worst diets in the country. and they are worst paid...and most vulnerable. declining quality of life and poor health of an entire underclass of the population IS costly. when the children of farm workers are at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes before they hit their teens, its a problem. its not luddite to replace farm workers with machines. i cant even...ugh. we need machines. we need farming robots. it is the right thing to do. i am a tiny tiny farm...but the farms that feed the world sprawl over thousands and thousands of acres. they are ginormous and its a mess, frankly. while many tasks in most farms is mechanised, there is certainly a price for it. the advantage to robot farm workers is that they can put in more hours, can self power themselves(we will see this in the future), clean energy, wear and tear can be repaired.
modeless 10y ago
No. My dad is a peach farmer. Human workers are more expensive than automation, but not only that: they are difficult to find and come with tons of regulation and legal risk. Peach harvesting machines exist and my dad would love to use them, however they bruise the peaches too much to be used. Current machines simply shake the tree and let all the peaches fall into a net. Also, those machines are single purpose but picking is not the only labor intensive task. Thinning, propping, and pruning also require a lot of labor. GP has been downvoted, but I think they're right to some extent. There is huge potential for robotics in farming, and although some projects exist I think there is underinvestment relative to other areas. Some of the most advanced and productive farms in the world are less than two hours drive from the heart of Silicon Valley, yet I see no collaboration there.

searine 10y ago

>Tech industry completely ignores it because it's not sexy enough! Tech ignores it because the profits are razor thin. It's hard to improve on sun+dirt+human hands.

tropo 10y ago
I'd pay more for food that has never been exposed to animals. This includes humans, birds, rodents, bugs... and their manure too of course. The store counts too. Seal it before it leaves the greenhouse.

jobu 10y ago

> Tech industry completely ignores it because it's not sexy enough! More like tech journalism ignores it. There's already been a ton of investment in farm automation. John Deere Autonomous Tractor - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh2O0c9VBO0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh2O0c9VBO0 Agrobot Strawberry Harvester - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT351pQHfI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT351pQHfI Ferrari RemoWeed - http://www.ferraricostruzioni.com/en/series/remoweed http://www.ferraricostruzioni.com/en/series/remoweed Agricultural Drones - http://www.precisiondrone.com/ http://www.precisiondrone.com/ Lely's Automated Milking Machine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYg0haya28I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYg0haya28I

bsder 10y ago

The tech industry ignores it because it will never return the home run that VC capital needs. Merely profitable businesses don't fit into the tech ecosystem very well.

beat 10y ago
Most of the tech industry is "merely profitable businesses". Unicorns are for VCs and little girls who still believe in stories.