From drones to autonomous tractors, robotic farming is here to stay and (dare I say it?) grow! Researchers of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, located at the University of Sydney, has recently introduced the latest family member in the field of farm ‘bots known as the Ladybird – an autonomous data collecting and analyzing vehicle.
“Ladybird is a completely new approach to agriculture robotics. The focus is not simply to automate tasks such as spraying, weeding and harvesting, but to also provide a system that can provide continuous information about the state of the farm such as the health of crops and soil and appropriate timing for other crop activities such as when and what to harvest.” – Prof. Salah Sukkarieh
With the Ladybird’s ability to scan entire fields at a micrometer resolution, the 3D modeled maps allows the detection and segregation of selected crops from weeds, alongside the crop’s health. As a result, the farmer is able to use the most efficient amount of data available without having to personally inspect the entire field, which could take several hours, if not days depending on the size of the field.
As Professor Sukkarieh notes, soon we’ll begin witnessing a fully integrated, interconnected relationship between all of the farm ‘bots and farmer.
“The robot will have advance levels of intelligence allowing it to communicate to the wider farm system and hence support optimal operations. In a few years we will see robot-to-robot, robot-to-tractor, and robot-to-grower communication happening at advance levels and ultimately complete automation and optimisation of farm operations.” – Prof. Salah Sukkarieh
FUTURE IMPLICATIONS
The Ladybird is an amazing piece of machinery, but it still has much more room to improve. And improve it will! Agriculture has a strong history of being front and center in revolutionary societal change, starting with the agricultural revolution. Today we’re witnessing agriculture’s second revolution with the help of advanced robotics.
Soon no humans will need to be present for, or even within operations of, our crop production, as it’ll quickly be fully controlled by smart autonomous robots and A.I. systems. Neo-Luddites today are already uptight about humans genetically modifying our crops. Imagine how they’ll react when robots take control of the modifying instead?!
Photo Credit: Australian Centre for Field Robotics