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Self-driving tractors, robot Apple pickers: Witness the hitech future of farming

17 points by jelliclesfarm 6y ago

allears 6y ago
Will they be picking iMacs or iPhones? rAndom Capitalization caN aFFect meaning...
- bluepoint 6y ago
  I fell for that too. I was expecting to see tractors with the apple logo.
tengbretson 6y ago
> With no driver or cab, autonomous tractors would be lighter, doing less damage in compressing the soil. Soil compaction is a real problem, but I don't think farmers are looking for a lighter tractor that cannot be driven at all.
- jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  Small acreage farmers could use autonomous tractors. That saves labour costs. You still need to pay someone to drive the tractor.
  - tengbretson 6y ago
    So this tractor leaves the home farm and autonomously drives on some of the least friendly dirt and gravel roads and arrives at the property. A second robot pops out of the main tractor to go open the gate, the tractor drives through the narrow opening towing the field implement behind it and waits for it's mini robot to finish closing the gate and return to it's docking station. The tractor then takes off through the 30 acres of pasture that separates the crop ground from road access, following a winding two track path. It crosses the creek at the bottom of the valley, not at the main crossing, that one is too muddy from the wet spring and higher traffic last week, the one upstream of it. It continues up the other side, following the path until it reaches the gate to the crop ground. The mini robot pops out. This time it must hurry, because the cows grazing this pasture think this tractor is coming to feed them and have started to gather round. The tractor makes it through the gate, waiting while the mini robot shoos the cattle that followed thenm through back into the pasture. The tractor can now start working the field. It starts by doing a few passes around the outside perimeter. On the first pass it finds a tree from the fence line has blown over into the field from the storm last week and needs to be dragged out of the way. Mini robot deployed again, and pulls the tree into a ditch. The main tractor continues on its first pass while mini robot patches the top line of barbed wire, broken by the weight of the downed tree. The tractor is coming back around from its first pass, just in time too, since a big chunk of plastic bale wrap that blew in from the neighbors farm has gotten lodged in the implement and is causing malfunction. Mini robot pulls out it's pocket knife and cuts the plastic free and re-docks so that the tractor can continue. This is what small scale farming looks like. Do you think we are close?
    - jelliclesfarm 6y ago
      No. And I am not amused. I have had agbots of various sizes demo in my field. You are making a mockery of my living for a few laughs on HN.
- tuatoru 6y ago
  > With no driver or cab, autonomous tractors would be lighter, doing less damage in compressing the soil. The more likely development is that the tractors will be designed to operate continuously for a week at a time (or more), because there's no need for operator shift changes, and equipment utilisation is important. And so is planting and harvesting when conditions are right. Bigger, heavier tractors on bigger farms. Some farms are already big enough that it takes a few days to make a circuit of a field.
- PoignardAzur 6y ago
  Yeah, I'm not sure removing the 100kg at most of the driver is going to help much.
- JoeAltmaier 6y ago
  In fact, I believe all commercial robot tractors have a cab. And a driver in the cab at all times. John Deere definitely only deploys this way.
kickout 6y ago
https://thinkingagriculture.io/what-silicon-valley-doesnt-understand-about-agriculture/ https://thinkingagriculture.io/what-silicon-valley-doesnt-un...
- jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  Thanks for reminding me of that thread. Agtech is very easy to understand. It is a data play. When you think of Tesla, do you think of it as an automobile company or a data company? Some(like me) would argue that they are in the business of data rather than cars. It’s the same for Agtech. Are they about agriculture or are they about data? For now, it’s the latter. And this doesn’t help farmers. Maybe we need FarmerTech rather than Agtech.
LockAndLol 6y ago
I thought the future of farming was vertical farms. What happened? Do these have a higher yield and cost to profit ratio?
- jsilence 6y ago
  Maybe someone realized that plants need light?

17 points by jelliclesfarm 6y ago

allears 6y ago

Will they be picking iMacs or iPhones? rAndom Capitalization caN aFFect meaning...

bluepoint 6y ago
I fell for that too. I was expecting to see tractors with the apple logo.

tengbretson 6y ago

> With no driver or cab, autonomous tractors would be lighter, doing less damage in compressing the soil. Soil compaction is a real problem, but I don't think farmers are looking for a lighter tractor that cannot be driven at all.

jelliclesfarm 6y ago
Small acreage farmers could use autonomous tractors. That saves labour costs. You still need to pay someone to drive the tractor.
- tengbretson 6y ago
  So this tractor leaves the home farm and autonomously drives on some of the least friendly dirt and gravel roads and arrives at the property. A second robot pops out of the main tractor to go open the gate, the tractor drives through the narrow opening towing the field implement behind it and waits for it's mini robot to finish closing the gate and return to it's docking station. The tractor then takes off through the 30 acres of pasture that separates the crop ground from road access, following a winding two track path. It crosses the creek at the bottom of the valley, not at the main crossing, that one is too muddy from the wet spring and higher traffic last week, the one upstream of it. It continues up the other side, following the path until it reaches the gate to the crop ground. The mini robot pops out. This time it must hurry, because the cows grazing this pasture think this tractor is coming to feed them and have started to gather round. The tractor makes it through the gate, waiting while the mini robot shoos the cattle that followed thenm through back into the pasture. The tractor can now start working the field. It starts by doing a few passes around the outside perimeter. On the first pass it finds a tree from the fence line has blown over into the field from the storm last week and needs to be dragged out of the way. Mini robot deployed again, and pulls the tree into a ditch. The main tractor continues on its first pass while mini robot patches the top line of barbed wire, broken by the weight of the downed tree. The tractor is coming back around from its first pass, just in time too, since a big chunk of plastic bale wrap that blew in from the neighbors farm has gotten lodged in the implement and is causing malfunction. Mini robot pulls out it's pocket knife and cuts the plastic free and re-docks so that the tractor can continue. This is what small scale farming looks like. Do you think we are close?
  - jelliclesfarm 6y ago
    No. And I am not amused. I have had agbots of various sizes demo in my field. You are making a mockery of my living for a few laughs on HN.
tuatoru 6y ago
> With no driver or cab, autonomous tractors would be lighter, doing less damage in compressing the soil. The more likely development is that the tractors will be designed to operate continuously for a week at a time (or more), because there's no need for operator shift changes, and equipment utilisation is important. And so is planting and harvesting when conditions are right. Bigger, heavier tractors on bigger farms. Some farms are already big enough that it takes a few days to make a circuit of a field.
PoignardAzur 6y ago
Yeah, I'm not sure removing the 100kg at most of the driver is going to help much.
JoeAltmaier 6y ago
In fact, I believe all commercial robot tractors have a cab. And a driver in the cab at all times. John Deere definitely only deploys this way.

kickout 6y ago

https://thinkingagriculture.io/what-silicon-valley-doesnt-understand-about-agriculture/ https://thinkingagriculture.io/what-silicon-valley-doesnt-un...

jelliclesfarm 6y ago
Thanks for reminding me of that thread. Agtech is very easy to understand. It is a data play. When you think of Tesla, do you think of it as an automobile company or a data company? Some(like me) would argue that they are in the business of data rather than cars. It’s the same for Agtech. Are they about agriculture or are they about data? For now, it’s the latter. And this doesn’t help farmers. Maybe we need FarmerTech rather than Agtech.

LockAndLol 6y ago

I thought the future of farming was vertical farms. What happened? Do these have a higher yield and cost to profit ratio?

jsilence 6y ago
Maybe someone realized that plants need light?