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Autonomous Robots Plant, Tend, and Harvest Entire Crop of Barley
- meri_dian 9y agoAutomate the supply chains. Start with what is essential then move on from there.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoDisagree. Automate the production, which democratizes the supply. Minimal supply chains are necessary if you can produce crops autonomously at the point of consumption (think rooftop solar). It would be wildly inefficient to grow in each person's backyard, but not so to grow in the outer rings of urban areas. Automated production is essential. Supply chains for abundant, distributed resources are superfluous.
- abakker 9y agoI think you might be correct in some domains, but farming isn't one. You simply can't grow all crops in all places, nor is that allocation of land a good use. Barley grows well in flat fields. Not so well in the wooded hills outside Atlanta. Hops won't grow at all where it doesn't freeze in the winter, and basil needs lots of sun and water. We've mostly optimized where we grow crops for land use and yield already, so, it is indeed a supply chain problem to move them to where they need to go. Also, I'm not sure how automation of labor democratizes supply. supply isn't constrained by labor. It is constrained by yield. Automation won't solve that as much as chemical engineering or more land would.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago> I'm not sure how automation of labor democratizes supply. It puts the control back in the hands of consumers of the product, instead of producers (which is more often than not, multinationals or large corporations who are motivated to extract as much profit as possible from their business transactions). You do not have time or resources to farm your own plot of land (generally speaking, hand waving away the homesteaders here). Your ag co-op [1] does. This is to farming as AWS was to infrastructure (if I may be permitted to torture an analogy). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_cooperative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_cooperative
- abakker 9y agoAutomation provides the masses neither the automatons nor the land. It could make coops marginally better at producing, but it would cost money the coop doesn't have to buy the robots and systems, and would still be constrained by land and fertilizer. Labor just doesn't matter that much to yield.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoIndeed the initial capital needs to come from somewhere, although I will argue that technology creates a deflationary spiral allowing automatons to be acquired cheaper than traditional tooling. Witness Tesla able to sell a $35k base EV that is superior to quite a few internal combustion vehicles on the market, with that price only going down as battery manufacturing scales up. "The students involved in the Hands Free Hectare project also suggest that this was probably “the most expensive hectare of barley ever,” with an overall budget of £200,000 from the U.K. government. Moonshots like this are understandably expensive, though, and since a huge chunk of that money went to capital costs (like buying a tractor and a harvester), the next crop will be vastly cheaper."
- wil421 9y agoWho do you really think will own the robots? It will be the multinational corporations again. Food is decently cheap already considering I have to eat multiple times a day. People will just spend their money on some place else. Like you said another corporation will extract profit from other transactions.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago> Who do you really think will own the robots? Well, society gets a say. Witness how both Canada and India have invalidated pharma patents, and how the US DoD is permitted to nullify patents when it suits them for strategic purposes [1]. Also, the US government can infringe on a patent with limited resource of the patent holder. "Can the U.S. Government Infringe a U.S. Patent? (The U.S. Government Says it’s Impossible)" "Although a patentee can sue the U.S. government for unlicensed use of its invention, Congress requires that those cases be filed in the Court of Federal Claims (CFC) rather than in district court. No jury trial is available, and the only remedy is a reasonable royalty." [2] I think its a bit defeatist to throw your arms up in the air and say "there is no hope, big companies will always win", but I'm an optimist. [1] https://www.wired.com/2013/04/gov-secrecy-orders-on-patents/ https://www.wired.com/2013/04/gov-secrecy-orders-on-patents/ [2] https://patentlyo.com/patent/2015/09/government-infringe-impossible.html https://patentlyo.com/patent/2015/09/government-infringe-imp...
- thomas_howland 9y agoThe amount of labor involved in grain crops like barley per dollar of output is minimal already - the guy running the tractor/combine/etc is mostly making sure nothing breaks and keeping an eye on things (which is important when you're operating $N00,000 worth of heavy equipment on open ground). You do need guys, however, for when things do go wrong, and for all the other farm tasks (equipment maintenance, fencing, maintaining irrigation, and so on).
- nine_k 9y agoIt's a very nice proof of concept. Also I bet these guys collected a lot of info important to develop robots for more finicky crops. This could be the most valuable part of the project.
- oh_sigh 9y agoTrue, but that is because the farmers have access to huge fields which let them deploy their equipment efficiently. Autonomous farming would let you theoretically use more marginal lands which are not currently suitable for manual farming.
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- randomdata 9y agoI expect you are suggesting that small parcels of land that are far away from large fields are not worth the travel expenses? I'm not sure that robots really improve on that, as fuel, wear and tear, etc. going field to field remain a big detractor. There are plenty of farmers who do it for fun. They'd be happy to spend the time in the machine if labour costs were the only reason to avoid those fields. I already farm a field that is one acre in size and one that is three acres because they are near to a large field that does justify the travel costs. Any that fit that description are likely to be already in production.
- oh_sigh 9y agoNot necessarily small - mostly marginal(I should have mentioned that it wasn't necessarily sheer size of field, but something like size*quality in my original post). I don't agree with your characterization about farmers doing it for fun. I'm sure there are a lot of people, say, within 10 miles of a major city who would farm for fun, but outside of that radius you mostly have people who either already have farms or manually farm on their own house plot.
- bobsgame 9y agoI love this so much. This is the coolest thing in the world.
- samstave 9y agoIt said that the capital to do this was $200,000 -- what was the inventory of robots required to accomplish this. What will it take to have a small fleet of robots to manage small farms - but many small farms. What if a community of gardens and farms were dispersed around a neighborhood/small town - and the town shared the use of the autonomous robots wherever possible. Which robots are common to all farms and which robots are specific to a given crop? Also, the downplay the robot-management tasks (refueling, recharging, interceding in really bad weather to tell the robots "that'll do robot, no farming today" sort of stuff) An open library of farm robots, the tasks they can do, their cost options, how much crop area /number of farms/acres they can manage, if they can multi-task between activities specific to tomatoes in one farm and corn in another etc... That would be interesting data. Then couple that with the open source civilization plans - and update those to make those items more intelligent for efficiencies in their designed tasks. In 100 years, if we can get an atmosphere on mars, we just send a fully automated pre-colonizing farm fleet to prep our invasion.
- ekianjo 9y agoIt will take way longer than 100 years to gey an atmosphere ready to grow earth crops on Mars, if at all possible.
- samstave 9y agoI know that, I was putting a random number. Regardless, we could still have a fleet of robots go build structures there, then another that will grow things in the structures... We talk about sending men to mars, but I think it's short-sighted to not first figure out how to send and deploy resources and robots to pre-build infrastructure for said humans - and we should be practicing on the moon. Or why is it that nobody seems to be talking about this? And specifically talking about practicing in the moon? Spacex is really focused on a rocket that can get to mars, how much more quickly can it get to the moon?
- ekianjo 9y ago> We talk about sending men to mars, but I think it's short-sighted to not first figure out how to send and deploy resources and robots to pre-build infrastructure for said humans - and we should be practicing on the moon. As far as I know SpaceX is focusing on sending "stuff" to Mars, not just humans. Humans are better than robots in many ways though, as in they can do a lot of more versatile stuff. We can build rovers to explore and take pictures, but building a robot that can mimic the palette of actions of a typical human is far beyond our reach at the moment.
- randomdata 9y ago> There’s still dirt, early mornings, dirt, more dirt I have always wondered who are these farmers in the dirt in the early morning? Where I farm the environment is rarely suitable for 'being in the dirt' in the morning. Typically the field work starts in the mid-afternoon after the sun has had a chance to dry up the morning's dew or previous days rain. There are definitely some late nights though.
- seiferteric 9y agoHot arid climates? In the CA central valley there will be little dew in the morning in summer as it's probably already 70+ degrees F, so the earlier the better.
- Gustomaximus 9y agoIm on a small hobby farm outside Brisbane. Mid afternoon you want to be inside to get out of the heat. Mornings are prime time to get things done. Or later afteenoon.
- randomdata 9y ago> Mid afternoon you want to be inside to get out of the heat. That's what air conditioning is for!
- lightedman 9y ago"I have always wondered who are these farmers in the dirt in the early morning?" Southern California vineyards, for one. Come work in 100+F heat at 9:30AM.
- randomdata 9y agoI'm not sure that vinyards really match the description of the grain farmer in the article. But maybe I read too into their description. Still, there is no set pattern of farmer behaviour. It is interesting that the idea of get up early has become so pervasive.
- jefflombardjr 9y agoDo this for small scale non-monoculture farming and I will be impressed. This is just a marginal productivity gain for factory farming.
- losteric 9y agoYou're right... it's just like how early commercial computers were productivity gains for large corporations. New tech is expensive and not very good - only big businesses see positive ROI. As some technology matures, it becomes a commodity for everyone. Small farms could go do this right now. It just wouldn't make financial sense.
- jefflombardjr 9y agoYeah I mean if you think improving ethanol and malt production is cool. As far as actual food I'm more impressed by small scale open source farm bot projects and some of the innovative stuff permaculturists are doing without tech. Factory farmers = Microsoft/Windows Small scale farmers = Open Source/Linux
- akgerber 9y agoWhile in rural Japan, I noticed a lot of tiny combine rice harvesters in tiny rice paddies, as opposed to mega-scale American agriculture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice#/media/File:Rice-combine-harvester,_Katori-city,_Japan.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice#/media/File:Rice-combine-... Perhaps these would be a model for smaller autonomous combines.
- TaylorAlexander 9y agoIf anyone is in to this I write speculative fiction about this kind of thing: http://tlalexander.com/sanctuary/ http://tlalexander.com/sanctuary/ (I also build robots) :)
- tw1010 9y agoAny tips for people who want to start writing speculative fiction (or just short stories), other than to just practice a lot?
- quuquuquu 9y agoNot OP, but I would suggest reading paul graham's essay about writing like how you would speak. What also works best for me is writing the shit that I actually want to read, or developing the games that I actually want to play. Write from the heart, and love it so much that you re-read your own stories. Most people probably won't read it or like it. But that's just the game we play!
- TaylorAlexander 9y agoI think my best tip is both to read (for amusement, education, and inspiration) and to write (as in - just do it, and if you're stuck silence your inner critic and just DO IT). I'm just some engineer. But I'm a really imaginative and passionate person and I have a lot of ideas I care about. And so I write about those. I was inspired by reading The Martian, which was an amazing book written by a Software Engineer. It was after reading The Martian that I began writing. Have you tried writing? What has been your blocker?
- DesiLurker 9y agowhat I am interested in is robots that can reforest unused land. Imagine the possibilities with having armies of robots re-establishing green cover in Amazon delta. kinda like this but with robots:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_GreenHands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_GreenHands good thing is that would be not require nearly as much 'babysitting' as growing crops just ability to charter uneven terrain.
- ph0rque 9y agoReforestration with drones: https://www.biocarbonengineering.com/technologies https://www.biocarbonengineering.com/technologies
- thinkcontext 9y agoPeople (and their livestock) are a bigger problem than technology in reforestation.
- zeristor 9y agoThere were a series of talks at the Royal Society about Robot Farming a few months back. This video, by the head of Harper Adams College, goes into a lot more detail: https://youtu.be/OU8nwf2UI8g https://youtu.be/OU8nwf2UI8g Agricultural machinery size is now limited by train tunnel size for delivery. Larger farm vehicles, although more productive per person are heavier and cause soil compaction, which then requires further treatments to fix. Mention was made of light robot tractors able to work wet fields earlier before they are dry enough for a heavy human tractor so extending they growing season. They show an example of a light weight tractor that can drive up and down on a wet field without turning it into mud.
- Taniwha 9y agoSomewhere out the back is another bunch of fields where they test the robots, they're probably full of crops in various states of destruction
- Ballantara 9y agos/barley/weed/gi
- brootstrap 9y agomy man!
- ge96 9y agoMan that is a cool site, all the robotic articles thanks for sharing
- Tade0 9y ago> Moonshots like this are understandably expensive, though, and since a huge chunk of that money went to capital costs (like buying a tractor and a harvester), the next crop will be vastly cheaper. They would get a more accurate number if they calculated how much these machines depreciated over that period instead of just throwing in their total cost.
- justonepost 9y agoNot really, they should theoretically handle a lot more than a hectare with these things.
- camillomiller 9y agoI have an acquaintance who works for a huge manufacturer of agricultural machinery. His stories about adventurous technicians who have to parachute into remote Australian farm lands to repair a stuck self-driving combine are always nice to hear.
- Reason077 9y agoWhat I really need is an autonomous slug-killing robot on my allotment. Everything else I can handle. I've tried most existing controls, short of toxic Metaldehyde pellets, with little effect on the little buggers. I estimate they destroyed over 50% of my (potential) crop this year, which makes you wonder how much toxic stuff goes on all those perfect field-grown cabbages etc you see in supermarkets...
- awjr 9y agoChickens are the answer my friend ;) Seriously they are brilliant and the eggs are just this great bonus. The more insects they eat the tastier the eggs! You do need to visit them at least once per day, however auto-feeders and automatic coop openers do mean you are only going to collect eggs and maybe refill water. They also have amazing characters. If you have a good relationship with other allotment holders then they can also collect eggs and look after them for you if you go on holiday. If you do consider getting some, get point of lay chickens as they will give you a lot more eggs in the long run. Rescue chickens are a friendlier than some of the pure breeds but you do not get the variety of egg colours. You do not need a cockerel but do expect hens to crow after laying. They love shouting about it.
- Reason077 9y agoUnfortunately animals are not permitted on my allotment (except bees). Also the visiting-every-day requirement might be more of a commitment than I can muster. But I'm curious, how would the chickens get to the slugs? Don't they have to be kept in a fenced off enclosure, away from the plants - otherwise they would damage young seedlings etc? We do have a population of toads which I think eat the slugs, but they just don't eat enough of them! And the local cats, in turn, seem to be quite interested in eating the toads...
- awjr 9y agoI used to keep young seedlings covered, but anything big they ignored but happily hunted all day. On an allotment I would suspect you would need to pen your allotment using a flexible electric fence IF people objected to chickens invading their allotment.
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