\u201cThere\u2019s still a massive gap between the labour that agriculture needs and the labour that agriculture has,\u201d says Walt Duflock<\/a>, vice president of innovation at Western Growers, a crop growers\u2019 association covering the western US.<\/p>\n \u201cSo labour is a huge problem and automation\u2019s the only solution to close the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n This is why farmers are now swapping more traditional machinery for modern, AI-powered farming robots<\/a> adept at some of the tasks that once required human hands.<\/p>\n The Na\u00efo Oz Farming Assistant (see main picture), for instance, is designed for hoeing, weeding, making furrows, seeding and transporting. There are nearly 150 of these robotic farmhands in circulation across 48 countries.<\/p>\n As well as an ever-increasing number of \u2018AgTech\u2019 start-ups, there are also more established manufacturers that have sold hundreds of robots, like Na\u00efo (see above) and Burro, which makes helper robots for tasks like towing and carrying.<\/p>\n Stout Industrial Technology, which sold its first Smart Cultivator (pictured above) in 2020, is also heading in the same direction. The cultivator can be hitched to the back of a tractor, where it uses computer vision and artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) to precisely control mechanical blades as they turn over soil and eliminate weeds, while sparing crops. Stout\u2019s approach is \u2018software-defined\u2019 \u2013 it builds multipurpose farming machines that will become more useful as the AI improves.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Field robotics expert Dr George Kantor<\/a>, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, thinks this is the right approach, although not the simplest one.<\/p>\n \u201cThe easy way to do it is to build a special purpose machine for every application and then use intelligence to automate that machine, but of course there are thousands of different applications in agriculture and very few of them are big enough to build a business around,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cSo you have to find ways of making the machine be applicable across tasks and across crops.\u201d<\/p>\n Tractors have been driving themselves for decades \u2013 John Deere developed a GPS-based self-guidance system in the early 2000s. But they haven\u2019t generally been doing it unmanned.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always been a person in that tractor,\u201d says Kantor. \u201cIt\u2019s basically driving itself \u2013 the person is sitting there and they\u2019re doing other things \u2013 but [the tractor] is not quite a robot.\u201d<\/p>\n A new breed of autonomous tractors, however, is set to change that. Specifications for the Monarch Electric Tractor<\/a> (pictured above) state that a driver is \u2018optional\u2019.<\/p>\n It\u2019s battery-powered, with 360\u00b0 cameras that can be accessed live by an operator via the software the manufacturer supplies. So now \u2018driving\u2019 a tractor is beginning to take on a whole new meaning, as we envisage farm workers managing whole fleets of vehicles without ever needing to lay their hands on a steering wheel.<\/p>\n Monarch claims operators can easily keep tabs on eight tractors at once via its Wingspan AI app, which provides maps and helpful data, such as distance covered and energy used.<\/p>\n Why pull your weeds out of the ground by hand when you can have them zapped with pinpoint precision by a laser-wielding robot? Carbon Robotics\u2019 Laserweeder uses high-resolution cameras and computer vision software to tell weeds from crops, then blasts them into submission.<\/p>\n While the demo version (pictured above) is an autonomous unit, the 2023 model comes in an \u2018implement\u2019 format that can be hooked up to a tractor.<\/p>\n At $1.4m (\u00a31.2m approx), it doesn\u2019t come cheap, but it can kill 200,000 weeds per hour. This makes it popular enough that there\u2019s a year-long waiting list for orders, according to Duflock.<\/p>\n It\u2019s simply a question of maths for growers, who are having to postpone their weeding because they can\u2019t get the labour. \u201cThey run the maths against the crew,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd what they\u2019re telling me is the breakeven on a couple of hundred acres looks to be two or three years.\u201d<\/p>\n So while those with bigger operations \u2013 more like 5,000-10,000 acres (20-40km2<\/sup>) \u2013 are going to be the early adopters, once the technology is proven, smaller-scale growers are bound to jump on-board too.<\/p>\n Weeding and thinning out of crops are some of the tasks that agricultural technology companies are starting to get a handle on.<\/p>\n According to Duflock, while harvesting might be causing more of a headache, new farming technologies will have these more straightforward applications \u2018figured out\u2019 within the next decade.<\/p>\n This will mean higher upfront costs for farms, but will also reduce reliance on temporary workers from other countries, which in the US comes with associated housing and transport costs under a government visa scheme.<\/p>\n But if cash-strapped farmers don\u2019t have a cool million to lay out on a Laserweeder, then the Farmwise Titan FT35 Agtech Robot (above) offers a mechanical weed-killing solution suited to a tighter budget.<\/p>\n Combining a self-driving tractor and weeding attachment, it\u2019s a hefty-looking robot but is still capable of precision weeding. It can also apply chemicals to kill weeds and pests.<\/p>\n Because lighting levels need to be optimum for sensing the weeds, the FT35 has a \u2018skirt\u2019 that can be raised and lowered to offer some level of control over the amount of light getting in.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Vineyards present different challenges from other forms of farming, but agricultural robots like the Vitibot (pictured above) are specially designed to deal with at least some of them.<\/p>\n This autonomous electric robot trundles along each row, tilling the ground as it goes, but can also be fitted with tools for spraying, weeding and trimming.<\/p>\n Harvesting grapes is another matter. Grapes come in two varieties: wine grapes (which are crushed) and table grapes (which are eaten whole). For wine grapes, it\u2019s already possible to buy robotic harvesters.<\/p>\n French company Pellenc sells one that wine producers have used to harvest their grapes, while Duflock says manufacturers will probably come up with service models that smaller growers can borrow to harvest their crops at lower cost.<\/p>\n Table grapes require a slightly gentler touch. As Kantor explains, human harvesters carry out a number of important tasks as they\u2019re picking the grapes off the vine.<\/p>\n \u201cThey would cut a bunch off the vine, clean the cluster, make it the right shape and size, cut out the dead grapes and get the sticks out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can imagine a robot that takes the cluster off the vine today, but I can\u2019t imagine a robot that does that other really fine stuff \u2013 not any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n New farming technologies are not without risk. That\u2019s why they\u2019re built with safety features, like the emergency stop button (pictured above) on Robotics Plus\u2019s tree and vine sprayer, or the \u2018human detection\u2019 system on Monarch\u2019s electric tractor, which puts the brakes on when a person gets too close.<\/p>\n There are less obvious risks too. As agriculture becomes increasingly data-driven, companies are showing interest in aggregating all this new data.<\/p>\n While there are plenty of intelligent things we could do with massive agricultural datasets \u2013 like predicting the impacts of climate change on crop growth \u2013 there are also concerns it could be exploited, for instance, by insurers who set the premiums for crop losses or flood damage.<\/p>\n Though Duflock notes that if farmers \u201cget smart enough\u201d and share their data safely, they could use it as an additional revenue stream.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, concerns about robots taking our jobs may be unfounded in an industry that is desperately short of labour \u2013 in fact, they may create fewer but more highly skilled, better-paid jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 10 years, I do think immigrant farm labour will still be a huge factor on the farm,\u201d Duflock says.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think there\u2019ll be a lot of robots that enable those workers to do more things that are valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n About our expert, Dr George Kantor<\/strong><\/p>\n George Kantor is a research professor at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. There he researches autonomous robots, including mining and farming robots. He has delivered papers at the International Conference On Robotics And Automation and the AI For Agriculture And Food Systems conference.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <\/body><\/html>\n In the west, farm workers are in short supply… but robots are ready to take their jobs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27533,"template":"","categories":[54],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"9"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/robo-crops-meet-the-laser-wielding-ai-machines-taking-over-a-farm-near-you.jpg",1200,511,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/robo-crops-meet-the-laser-wielding-ai-machines-taking-over-a-farm-near-you-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/robo-crops-meet-the-laser-wielding-ai-machines-taking-over-a-farm-near-you-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/robo-crops-meet-the-laser-wielding-ai-machines-taking-over-a-farm-near-you-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/robo-crops-meet-the-laser-wielding-ai-machines-taking-over-a-farm-near-you-1024x436.jpg",800,341,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/robo-crops-meet-the-laser-wielding-ai-machines-taking-over-a-farm-near-you.jpg",1200,511,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/robo-crops-meet-the-laser-wielding-ai-machines-taking-over-a-farm-near-you.jpg",1200,511,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In the west, farm workers are in short supply... but robots are ready to take their jobs.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Multipurpose machines<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""Stout\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/smart-cultivator-5aae0c2.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Stout\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Techno tractor<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""Monarch\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/techno-tractor-9c10162.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Monarch\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Top of the range<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""Carbon\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/laserweed-a7d065c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C827"\" "\\"\"Carbon\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Field of dreams<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""Autonomous\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/titan-robot-e0dd7c2.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"FarmWise\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Optimus vine<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""BAKUS\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/optimus-vine-1-83c6ca2.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Vitibot\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Safety first<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""emergency\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/safety-first-4eb2067.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Robotics\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"