An attempt to introduce small robots into agriculture to achieve agricultural efficiency improvement is in progress

by Victor Camilo

Agriculture tends to seem to be rather analogue industrial field, but introduction of robot etc is proceeding, such as the fact that vegetable factory using robot is made in Japan. Meanwhile, Britain's start-up is developing and researching with the goal of "introducing small robots into agriculture to realize more efficient agriculture".

'We'll have space bots with lasers, killing plants': the rise of the robot farmer | Environment | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/20/space-robots-lasers-rise-robot-farmer

In Hampshire in southern England, there is a farm which is owned by a farmer and a start-up that develops a small robot for agriculture called Small Robot Company . On that farm, small robots that look like space exploration robots named "Rachel" are running around.

Rachel who looked like an orange color had a smartphone installed at the back and said that it had four USB ports, a GPS receiver, and a system that controls the direction of travel by itself, and the total production cost was 2000 pounds (about 290,000 yen). Running around the field Rachel takes pictures of surrounding plants and soil every 3 seconds and creates a map to understand the situation of the entire land that will be made into fields.

Mr. Jamie Butler is the owner of the farm and grows wheat. Since wheat is an unstable crop easily affected by the weather, income as a farmer does not appear to be stable. Therefore, Mr. Butler considers that it is impossible to feed the family unless there is a side business such as raising cattle and lending part of the land as a fishing spot for fly fishing. According to Mr. Butler, introducing small robots like Rachel to agriculture sites may change the form of agriculture and may greatly improve future food production. "Rachel is revolutionary," Butler says.

The Small Robot Company who produced Rachel says that robots will be able to process not only land mapping but also all of the cultivation process of crops such as seed planting, crop care, weeding and harvesting. At the moment Rachel can only do it at the first stage of agriculture, but in the next few years we will be able to do other work as well.

Mr. Ben Scott-Robinson, co-founder of Small Robot Company, is a new entrant into the agricultural sector, and he said there was a new discovery when actually involved with farmers. "People involved in agriculture thought that they would be somewhat concerned with the introduction of new technology. Although certainly that tendency there are people who understand the necessity to incorporate new technology like Mr. Butler "Scott-Robinson said.

Scott-Robinson et al. Think that people engaged in small-scale agriculture will be able to do compact-scale agriculture more efficiently if the small farming method that introduced Small Robot Company's small robot is done. It is possible to reduce agricultural chemical use per agriculture by compacting agriculture, reduce the cost necessary for agriculture by 60%, and increase income from agriculture by 40%. Small scale agriculture using small robots like Rachel will be possible in harvesting agricultural crops as much as they can be used at stores in restaurants and other food products.

by Brian Evans

Also, in terms of the environment, small-scale agriculture using small robots has advantages. Large-scale agriculture has an adverse effect on the environment such as pesticide runoff and soil erosion which exacerbates floods. In addition, concerns about agriculture in the future are also emerging, such as honeybee that plays a major role in plant pollination decreases due to agricultural chemicals. "As farmers work on a farm every day, they feel with phenomena such as a decrease in honeybees and a decrease in pollination rate, and many farmers are hoping to continue farming in the next generation We have it, "Scott Robinson says.

Many robots have already been introduced at the site where cows are raised, and the system that feeds chickens and the system that moves poultry houses regularly and exercises are also automated. Even at the crop cultivation site, robots are introduced in the harvest of lettuce and strawberries in the United States, robots are used in debris cutting and weeding of grapes in France, etc. In the field of food production, robotization to the site of food production in various parts of the world The wave of waves is pouring.

Small Robot Company 's office is located in Portsmouth in southern Hampshire, and two long desks are scattered around cables and circuit boards as well as parts manufactured with 3D printers. Mr. Scott - Robinson worked for the UK Land Survey Department until 2016, he said he was developing a mapping service combining drone and AI. One day, inspired by the topic of introducing robots to agriculture heard with radio programs, Mr. Scott Robinson launched a startup for small robot development focusing on wheat cultivation.

by Neil Howard

"Wheat is one of the most grown crops in the world, it is also a crop sensitive to the environment, but if we can improve the cultivation system, we can make a big contribution to global food production," Scott-Robinson said It is easy to apply the know-how cultivated in wheat to other crops such as barley and maize.

Small Robot Company is a small company with only eight employees at the time of article creation. Small robots to be developed bring great benefits to small and medium scale farmers, and in theory it will reduce the competitive gap with farmers engaged in large-scale agriculture. Scope Mr. Scott-Robinson stated, "My final goal is not to sell startups," says Sci-Robinson, denying the possibility of it, although the policy may change when start-ups are sold to large companies.

by Lucas Gillispie

Professor Simon Blackmore who is studying robotic agriculture at Harper Adams University has actually studied agricultural automation for more than 30 years. Mr. Blackmore said to the world of agriculture that it continues from the 20th century "The bigger the scale, the better the industrial agriculture to harvest large amounts of agricultural produce using large amounts of pesticides is effective" I insist that there is much waste.

"The manufacturer of agricultural tractors does not develop small robots for agriculture because there is an idea that companies are" selling metals. "The next machine is to make it bigger than before It is strong and we are not focused on the development and sales of small robots that go against it ", says Blackmore, and it is predicted that the development of miniature robots for agriculture will be born out of small startups without being caught by past cases It is said that it is.

Many people think that agricultural robots benefit large farmers and believe there is a possibility of expelling small farmers. However, according to Mr. Blackmore, the fact is completely opposite to that belief, "Small robot says small farmers will be able to do more efficient farming." Mr. Blackmore is focusing on the development of "weeding robot" which discriminates 800 kinds of weeds and weeds with laser, we believe that weeding with pesticides will be a thing of the past by introducing weeding robot. "Weeding robots can be injected into farms even today," said Blackmore, speaking that it will begin to be used on British farms in the spring of 2019.

by Michael W. May

A company involved in herbicide robots developed by Mr. Blackmore is " Earth Rover " startup. Named Earth Rover is traveling on the surface of Mars after the Mars landing Mars Rover which was taken from (Mars Rover), it is attempts to incorporate the idea of the Mars Rover in cultivation, such as broccoli and lettuce, carrots.

Paul Haarter, COO of Earth Rover, said that "Space exploration robots are simple, robust, and hard to break", thinking that the know-how used for space development can be diverted to agricultural small robots running around farmland It is said that. Earth Rover 's agricultural robot, which was inspired by the space exploration robot, began to be introduced to farms from 2019, and it is scheduled to automatically harvest broccoli in 2021.

"Herbicidal and harvesting are the major labor costs in broccoli cultivation," Herter said, and using a small robot for agriculture can eliminate the labor shortage of farmers. The small robot for agriculture will be introduced to the farm in the future, and the proportion of the robot to the future food production may dramatically increase.

by NASA Johnson