Advances in farming robotics could address shortage in agricultural workers

By Steve Brachmann for IPWatchDog:  More and more, the agricultural world is looking towards the mechanization of labor processes through robotics as a way of potentially increasing their productivity. Robotics was identified as a sector of investment growth in agricultural tech by an April 2014 white paper on agriculture technologies published by the entrepreneurship and education non-profit Kauffman Foundation. Robotics is a regular focus of ours here on IPWatchdog, most recently visited in our coverage of the incredible advancements in walking and jumping robotics pioneered by Boston Dynamics, a Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) subsidiary. With American farmers already heavily involved in the regulatory conversation involving the commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, we thought that it would be interesting to delve into the world of farming robotics and see the recent advances in that particular field.

It’s important to understand first that the robotics being developed for commercial use on farms won’t be stand-alone humanoid units ranging through fields to pick crops. Any piece of hardware implementing an algorithm which automates some of the manual work of farming falls under this heading. One good example of this is the LettuceBot, a precision thinning technology which works to visually characterize plants in a lettuce row, identify which plants to keep and eliminating unwanted plants to optimize yield. The unit doesn’t move by itself but is guided along by a tractor instead. The technology has been developed by Blue River Technology of Sunnyvale, CA, a company which has attracted $13 million in investment between 2011 and 2014 to commercialize this product. The LettuceBot’s creators hope toprovide the technology as a third-party service to farm owners before manufacturing the unit for commercial sale.  Cont'd...

Comments (0)

This post does not have any comments. Be the first to leave a comment below.


Post A Comment

You must be logged in before you can post a comment. Login now.

Featured Product

Get RFQs on Die Casting, Stamping, and Extrusion With Xometry, Your Source for Custom Parts

Get RFQs on Die Casting, Stamping, and Extrusion With Xometry, Your Source for Custom Parts

Xometry is your source for custom parts. Now, in addition to getting instant quotes on 3D Printing, CNC Machining, Sheet Metal, and Injection Molding, customers can create and send RFQs for die casting, stamping, and extrusion work to our nationwide network of pre-vetted manufacturers with just a 2D drawing. You will receive and be able to review responses from qualified shops within 7 days on an advanced web-based RFQ management platform. To learn more go directly to our site to issue and RFQ today. Stop wasting time managing RFQs through email and by phone, and start issuing RFQs at scale and in the cloud.