Robotic Farming

An article in the NY Times discusses the challenges of building robots that have the capability to sense and respond. Turns out its much harder than researchers thought and there are only a few areas where such robots are a reality. One area that may prove promising is robots for gardening.

"In Dr. Rus’s advanced robotics class, students are designing a robotics garden, a plot of a half-dozen or so tomato plants serviced entirely by robots. Next to each plant is a wireless router that measures soil humidity every 10 seconds and is programmed with a computer model of how tomato plants grow. That information is conveyed to surveillance robots that wheel around the perimeter of the plot on Roomba-style bases, each bearing a metal arm threaded through with a watering tube, a camera to track the relative ruddiness of the fruits, and a pincered hand for weeding, cleaning away dead leaves and plucking off the tomatoes as they ripen.

A plant can call a robot over and complain that its soil is not moist enough, Dr. Rus said. Or a salad-minded person may solicit the system, saying, I need some tomatoes. Find the ripest five, pick them and set them aside.

The project is in its early stages, and the students are still ironing out some kinks in their robots and routers. But Dr. Rus’s hopes are high. As she sees it, the agricultural industry, with its backbreaking tasks and its reliance on pesticides and fertilizers, could use the methodical touch of a robot tuned to hear the plants cry. "

I got to get me some of them! Wonder if they make blueberry-picking robots?