10 robots changing the way we farm

Farmers are facing more pressure to feed and clothe an increasing global population, and labour shortage issues in the agricultural industry certainly aren’t helping.

In the last decade or so, there has been a number of technology developed to aid farmers in their jobs that have been successfully integrated on to farms everywhere, such as auto-steering and telemetry. But in a few years’ time, things could look very different.

Tech companies around the globe have jumped on the opportunity to develop a range of technology and autonomous systems to fill the gaps and solve some prominent issues within the sector.

Whether it be to address labour shortages, to improve efficiency on the farm or to reduce operation costs, these robots are designed to take a load off farmers’ shoulders so they can focus on the big picture stuff.

Here are 10 agriculture robots that have caught our attention:

Tom may be small but it has a very important job on the farm. It keeps track of the health and development of crops by monitoring them on a plant-by-plant basis.

Tom roams the fields until it’s out of charge, then returns to its 'kennel' to replace its battery for a fully charged one while also downloading the gigabytes of data it has collected for analysis.

"Tom knows exactly where your plants are. Whether they germinated, what they need," according to the Small Robot Company. "It suggests exactly what fertiliser and chemicals you need to maximise your crop, and if you agree, calls out Dick and Harry to deliver it."

In case you're wondering, Dick is a precision spraying and laser weeding robot while Harry looks after precision drilling and planting. The operating system is named Wilma.

Angus is the farm organiser robot you never knew you needed.

It moves around California-based tech start-up company Iron Ox's indoor leafy greens and herb farm; sensing, lifting and shifting hydroponic plants around as they grow so they have sufficient space for growth. Once they’re fully grown and ready for harvest, Angus transports the plants to the processing area.

There, the plants are handed over to an unnamed robotic transplanter arm equipped with Lidar sensors and cameras that identify diseases, pests and abnormalities in the plants before harvesting them.

Aussie agritech company Swarm Farm, led by robotic farming pioneer Andrew Bate, is making waves around the world with its simple and small robots that can be used individually on a small farm or scaled up to work together in 'swarms' on larger properties.

They are open-platform, so they can be adapted for use in a multitude of tasks. Bate said the first unit, delivered in November last year, is currently working on a turf farm mowing turf. The next one is going to a macadamia nut farm for mowing and spraying between the rows, and another two are going to grain – working with weed detection technology to spot-spray weeds.

Carrying on the theme of swarm robotics, Harvest Automation has developed the HV-100 material-handling robot that moves inventory around for organisation or transportation purposes.

Not unlike the Angus, the HV-100 is designed to move inventory around in unstructured outdoor environments such as nurseries, greenhouses and other commercial growing operations.

Its tasks could include spacing pots as crops grow, moving them as required to deal with changes in weather conditions, and collecting plants for distribution and transport.

One client in the US had a single human operator drive a forklift equipped with bedding forks continuously feeding a fresh cluster of rose pots to a swarm of four HV-100s, which then moved the plants successfully to a perfectly spaced position on the bed.

FarmBot's Genesis is a multi-talented robot which can do just about everything.

It’s a gantry-like unit that moves with millimeter precision to plant seeds, water them individually, measure the moisture content of the soil, destroy weeds and measure the health of the farm.

The only downside is, the Genesis is currently designed to service small areas that measure about 2.9m x 1.4m or 2.9m x 5.9m. However, FarmBot said the system is perfectly suited to crop research as it allows users to quickly design and run experiments to test various growing methods, input quantities, timing and more. FarmBot developers are currently working on scaling up the system to suit small to medium commercial use.

Plus, there is an app for use with the Genesis in which you can graphically design your farm by dragging and dropping plants into the map, almost like a game. Fun!

This Spanish robotic strawberry harvester is designed to perform autonomously among the rows of fruit. Up to 24 robotic arms work wirelessly and individually, each determining the ripeness of the fruit and then harvesting the ripe ones without making contact with the fruit.

The arms grip and cut the stems and then place the strawberries into field containers for later packing. The fruits can be harvested with a short stem or the Agrobot can automatically remove either the stem or calyx.

Customers said they love the robot as it frees up human workers to focus on other more complicated tasks.

A low-cost crop robot for small-scale farmers in Australia and overseas, the Digital Farmhand developed by the University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) has the potential to perform row crop analytics and allow the automation of simple farming tasks.

Various implements such as sprayers, weeders and seeders can be attached to the machine via a hitch mechanism.

Other robots being developed by ACFR include the Ladybird omni-directional science and research robot and SwagBot, an omni-directional electric vehicle capable of navigating uneven terrain and farm obstacles and destined for cattle stations.

As its name suggests, this robot sees weeds and sprays weeds, even in a field with fully germinated crops.

Developed by Deere & Company-owned Blue River Technology, the See & Spray uses computer vision and machine learning to distinguish between crop and weeds of many species and sizes and then uses robotic nozzles to apply herbicide to just the weeds as the machine passes over.

This helps farmers significantly reduce their herbicide use, hence saving costs and the environment. Its enclosed system ensures herbicide doesn’t drift.

A second row of cameras allows the robot to check its work as it operates. It is also able to make adjustments on the fly and gather data for future research and development.

A prototype robot developed by UK start-up, Earth Rover, uses optical imaging and 3D camera technology to monitor individual crops, spot diseases and determine when they are ready to be harvested.

Like Blue River Technology's See & Spray, the Earth Rover is also capable of intelligent plant recognition and is able to target individual weeds for spraying.

The robot is named after its interstellar counterpart, the Mars Rover and like its namesake, is adapted to carry tools and crunch data associated with farming activities.

Ted the vineyard-weeding robot is a straddling unit designed mainly for hoeing and weeding in vineyard operations. However, Naïo Technologies is planning to integrate other functionalities into the robot such as mowing, leaf thinning and trimming.

Naïo Technologies also makes Dino the vegetable weeding robot and Oz the robot weeder and hoer.

Oz also has a Follow Mode, so it can dog your footsteps while carrying a load, and even tow a small trailer during harvesting.