Farmer Tech: Springtime Is Here : Agricultural Scout Robot

By Kate Gammon , published on April 20, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Picture 7 of 18
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

The firm Vision Robotics has applied for a patent for an agricultural droid that could make some farmhands nervous. The robot uses a new sort of mapping and vision technology to scout out which areas of an orchard are ready to be harvested before deploying itself–or an army of picker bots–to do the job. Previous incarnations of harvesting droids had trouble distinguishing between ready fruit and areas that need more time. While this patent application probably means the bot is not yet ready for prime-time, other researchers are tackling the challenge of robots in the fields as well, in the form of autonomous flying robots to monitor the crops.
Sponsored links
Comments
sublifer 04/20/2009 10:39 PM
Hide
-1+

Nifty stuff. Its nice to see how modern tech is making its way into the different fields such as agriculture. (no pun intended)

Anonymous 04/21/2009 10:06 PM
Hide
-0+

14 : watermill is just a de-humidifier.. nothing special been around for YEARS... got one in my basement i use every spring to help dry up after rain & flood season. Can create probably a gallon of water...

hustler539 04/21/2009 11:02 PM
Hide
-0+

LOL at the donkey wagon....The Plant sensor, however, seems like a good idea for beginner gardeners.

average joe 04/21/2009 11:13 PM
Hide
-0+

I didn't understand the Donkey Wagon at all. Why can't you just use the solar panels to charge the cell phone. It's a wagon with a solar panel. Is it lighter than other wagons or anything? It looks like it has nice tires.

ProDigit80 04/22/2009 5:08 PM
Hide
-0+

openair: Better use a white bedsheet!

ProDigit80 04/22/2009 5:18 PM
Hide
-0+

Electricity storage: What if the tank explodes? About 30MWatts of compressed air can cause devastating destruction!

hellwig 04/30/2009 10:38 PM
Hide
-0+

ProDigit80 :
Electricity storage: What if the tank explodes? About 30MWatts of compressed air can cause devastating destruction!


They aren't using a tank, they're using an underground aqueduct (or some other natural structure). Since it will be a few hundred (or thousand) feet below the surface, they'd have to build up some extreme pressure to do more than blow a vent hole (maybe Iowa will soon have its own Old Faithful?). I also don't think its going to be a high-pressure system, probably only a few PSI at best.

hellwig 04/30/2009 10:39 PM
Hide
-0+

Anonymous :
14 : watermill is just a de-humidifier.. nothing special been around for YEARS... got one in my basement i use every spring to help dry up after rain & flood season. Can create probably a gallon of water...


Agreed. I was raised in the SW desert, so when I visited the east coast the concept of de-humidifying something was completely foerign to me, but yeah, they've been around forever.

Anonymous 05/18/2009 1:01 PM
Hide
-0+

I am currently working on making a virtuel hortibot simulator, using MS Robotic Developer Studio :) Check it out if you like

www.youtube.com/CornIsKing

Comments are closed on this page.
Sponsored links