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To me, it seems that having the panels on the bot is not an efficient design. Why lug those huge heavy panels everywhere? A modular design, where panels are i

To me, it seems that having the panels on the bot is not an efficient design. Why lug those huge heavy panels everywhere? A modular design, where panels are installed on the farm, and the heart of the machine is small, compact and has different chassis to suit different farming requirements, is a better way to go forward. The solar panels charge a swappable battery and the farmer can switch batteries every two days or so. Currently, the width of the bot is an issue. Its too big. You want small bots that can go between plants close together and do their magic.

bagels 4y ago
Which will be heavier, the batteries, or the panels? I'm sure there's a concern that the panels are undersized, especially when it's working in mud and trying to dig holes on a cloudy day. What is the ideal row spacing in your opinion? Row spacing is a factor of the size of the equipment (tractor and various devices they pull), and a size of the plants.
- kumarvvr 4y ago
  He is using 8 100W panels. You could fit a decent Li-Ion battery in place of that weight. Row spacing requirements vary greatly between different types of farms. For example, the current configuration is not suitable for corn or maize once they grow fully. My ideal case is to have a box that is pluggable to different chassis, that can be used at different stages of farming and at different types of farms.
  - bagels 4y ago
    Batteries are probably beter, won't disagree there, but they probably aren't going to save weight. Google says 100W panel is ~14 pounds, so in this case 800W / 112 lbs. Assuming you're getting an average of 800W over 6 hours: 4.8kwh per day, or 9.6 kwh for a couple of days. Using Tesla packs, 100kwh/1,300 lbs implies ~ 125 lbs. in batteries. Not an obvious win just on weight.
    - TaylorAlexander 4y ago
      Thanks for the calculation! Our biggest motivation for doing pure solar power is to reduce environmental waste from batteries wearing out. (The super capacitors last a million charge cycles) It makes sense to me that a single person can do farming by hand with about the same power available as our robot. There’s no heavy tillage in regenerative organic so the power requirements are much lower. Also the nice thing about the solar power is that the robot is just always ready to go. No charging, no battery swapping. No need to source electricity from anywhere. All you need is a modest amount of sunlight and you’re good to go. Honestly when we started the project I wanted to do batteries, and Daniel insisted we do solar and supercaps. After building it and using it I’ve fallen in love with the system. It’s so nice! The trick is to co-develop a farming system and the robot to get the farming done within this power envelope. We believe it’s likely possible. We can always slap a battery on it if needed. And I do enough software development at night I do have a battery for testing. But I’d prefer that be used for special cases rather than every day use.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
    Yeah, but if you want ground-engaging tools then that weight is helpful because it improves traction and increases inertia. There's a reason that tractors are heavy.

bagels 4y ago

Which will be heavier, the batteries, or the panels? I'm sure there's a concern that the panels are undersized, especially when it's working in mud and trying to dig holes on a cloudy day. What is the ideal row spacing in your opinion? Row spacing is a factor of the size of the equipment (tractor and various devices they pull), and a size of the plants.

kumarvvr 4y ago
He is using 8 100W panels. You could fit a decent Li-Ion battery in place of that weight. Row spacing requirements vary greatly between different types of farms. For example, the current configuration is not suitable for corn or maize once they grow fully. My ideal case is to have a box that is pluggable to different chassis, that can be used at different stages of farming and at different types of farms.
- bagels 4y ago
  Batteries are probably beter, won't disagree there, but they probably aren't going to save weight. Google says 100W panel is ~14 pounds, so in this case 800W / 112 lbs. Assuming you're getting an average of 800W over 6 hours: 4.8kwh per day, or 9.6 kwh for a couple of days. Using Tesla packs, 100kwh/1,300 lbs implies ~ 125 lbs. in batteries. Not an obvious win just on weight.
  - TaylorAlexander 4y ago
    Thanks for the calculation! Our biggest motivation for doing pure solar power is to reduce environmental waste from batteries wearing out. (The super capacitors last a million charge cycles) It makes sense to me that a single person can do farming by hand with about the same power available as our robot. There’s no heavy tillage in regenerative organic so the power requirements are much lower. Also the nice thing about the solar power is that the robot is just always ready to go. No charging, no battery swapping. No need to source electricity from anywhere. All you need is a modest amount of sunlight and you’re good to go. Honestly when we started the project I wanted to do batteries, and Daniel insisted we do solar and supercaps. After building it and using it I’ve fallen in love with the system. It’s so nice! The trick is to co-develop a farming system and the robot to get the farming done within this power envelope. We believe it’s likely possible. We can always slap a battery on it if needed. And I do enough software development at night I do have a battery for testing. But I’d prefer that be used for special cases rather than every day use.
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
  Yeah, but if you want ground-engaging tools then that weight is helpful because it improves traction and increases inertia. There's a reason that tractors are heavy.