Machines | Robotic Farmer: Prospero
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This is just a short video of the hexapod robot, Prospero, planting. Prospero is an autonomous robotic farmer that would be used as part of a group or swarm of identical robots. Imagine a hundred of these robots walking across a field, planting and working together like a colony of ants or bees. For more a longer video that goes more in depth, search for "vanmunch36" and look for the other Prospero videos. Prospero is the working prototype of an Autonomous Micro Planter (AMP) that uses a combination of swarm and game theory and is the first of four steps. It is meant to be deployed as a group or "swarm". The other three steps involve autonomous robots that tend the crops, harvest them, and finally one robot that can plant, tend, and harvest--autonomously transitioning from one phase to another. Prospero is controlled with a Parallax Propeller chip mounted on a Schmart Board. Its body is designed by Lynxmotion and the orginal programming allows it to walk autonomously in any direction while avoiding objects with its duel ultrasonic Ping))) without turning it's body. An underbody sensor array allows the robot to know if a seed has been planted in the area at the optimal spacing and depth. Prospero can then dig a hole, plant a seed in the hole, cover the seed with soil, and apply any pre-emergence fertilizers and/or herbicides along with the marking agent. Prospero can then talk to other robots in the immediate proximity that it needs help planting in that area or that this area has been planted and to move on via IR (currently represented with a green and red LED ). The more seeds it plants, the more the "green" LED lights up, the more it draws other robots nearby (+2). The more it detects planted seeds, the more it repulses other robots with the "red" LED (-1) Why small, autonomous robots? Robotics in Agriculture Despite its quaint reputation, agriculture has always been an early adapter of technology. This is evident from the beginning of mechanization with the cotton gin, McCormick's Reaper, tractors, hybrid seed, to genetically engineered plants that protect themselves and grow in arid environments. Yields have grown quickly, but demand from developing countries and population growth are growing faster We know that we need to continue to find ways to increase the productivity of land on a per unit basis. Agriculture has started to add computerization and automation to the current machinery with things like GPS based precision farming systems that can autonomously drive tractors, monitor yield, and apply fertilizer. However, these aftermarket add-ons are built around the single most expensive and awkward part of the equipment. The person controlling the tractor. Today's agricultural equipment has been designed around a person sitting in a chair. It cost a lot to employ a single person so the equipment grew larger in order to maximize the productivity of that one person. However, this method has its drawbacks. Farming decisions have to be made at the field level. Nature is chaotic and dynamic. Soil nutrients and moisture change from foot to foot. Having equipment that allows a single person to plant a thousand acres in a day comes at the cost of productivity per acre as a result of treating all those acres as the same. A swarm of small robots like Prospero would have the ability to farm inch by inch, examining the soil before planting each seed and choosing the best variety for that spot. This would maximizing the productivity of each acre, allow less land to be converted to farm land, feed more people, and provide a higher standard of living for those people because they would spend less of their money on food. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
Comments
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woow :)
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@MrBJReis you'd need a whole lot of money aswell
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That must of taken a lot of work to get the robot to dig a hole and place a seed in it then throw some dirt back on the hole .That impress of .Nice work guy or girls , guy or girl.
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sounds like you need a stronger servo for the drill
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While I do believe this concept is the future, you are going to have to speed up the planting rate or get thousands of these per field. Your robot takes around 30 seconds to put a seed in the ground. A 15" row unit moving at 4.5 mph and 130,000 seeds per acre puts around 24 seeds/sec. You would need 740 robots to replace each row unit on a planter. At most planters being24-36 rowunits wide, the math is against you. Spraying and tending is really the place to start, so you have the whole season.
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really good work!! thumbs up :)
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Next step: Replicators :D
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I'm glad you liked it. It was a lot of fun to build.
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Amazing Dude
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This would be handy to have in a vegetable garden. Nice work!