Agricultural Robots

[Simon Fairlie]

For analysis of the impact of agricultural robots see
http://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/bots-landscape
Simon
On 26 Aug 2014, at 00:37, Tony Gosling tony at cultureshop.org.uk  
[Diggers350] wrote:

>
>
> Robots Able To Pick Peppers, Test Soil, And Prune Plants Aim To  
> Replace Farm Workers
>
> Written By: Jason Dorrier  =  Posted: 07/14/14 8:00 AM

> http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/14/pepper-picking-soil-testing- 
> plant-pruning-robots-are-coming-to-farms/
>
> At the turn of the last century, nearly half of the American  
> workforce was dedicated to agriculture. Industrial inventions like  
> the steel plow had made farming easier, but it was still grueling  
> labor performed by men, women, and work animals.
>
> The invention of the combustion engine changed all that. The  
> mechanization of farm labor drove massive productivity gains, and  
> today, agricultural workers make up just over 2% of the workforce.
>
> Now, another revolution is underway the outright automation of  
> farming. Farm robots are increasingly capable of autonomously  
> performing complex tasks including plowing, plant and soil  
> surveillance, and even the harvesting of fruit and vegetables.
>
> Thanks to a combination of cheap sensors and computer vision,  
> machines are capable of more freely navigating and performing other  
> complex tasks. The tech uses a combination of infrared sensors and  
> stereoscopic cameras to drive autonomous telepresence robots in  
> hospitals and allow advanced industrial bots to recognize,  
> differentiate, and pick irregular shapes like haphazardly stacked  
> boxes. (Computer vision is also behind Google’s Project Tango 3D- 
> seeing smartphone and tablet.)
>
> Clearly, these skills are also useful on the farm where many jobs  
> have historically been beyond the average robot. Picking an apple,  
> for example, requires visually examining an object that varies in  
> shape and may be hidden in a chaotic canopy of leaves. Is it ripe?  
> Workers must check for color and size.
>
> Whereas in the past, robots were ill-suited for such work that is  
> less the case now. Computer vision, for example, is at the heart of  
> the WP5 robotic pepper picker.
>
>
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/private/diggers350/attachments/20140826/ba111245/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/x-ygp-stripped
Size: 252 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/private/diggers350/attachments/20140826/ba111245/attachment.bin>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/x-ygp-stripped
Size: 266 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/private/diggers350/attachments/20140826/ba111245/attachment-0001.bin>