Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
theguardian.com
Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
1–10 of 100 posts
Re: Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
#2This is awesome!
We were just talking about this on HN the other day. I want to build a fully robotic (automated) talapia fish farm on alameda island if anyone wants to join me?
Re: Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
#3I'm a bit puzzled that the reaction on the Guardian to this development is primarily one of fear that robots are taking our jobs. Isn't anyone excited about how all this production and efficiency is going to make food extremely cheap?
Re: Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
#4I'm a bit puzzled that the reaction on the Guardian to this development is primarily one of fear that robots are taking our jobs. Isn't anyone excited about how all this production and efficiency is going to make food extremely cheap?
Who has that reaction??
I'm amazed that the drive to Japan's robotic future is human population centric driven:
The average age of their farmers is 65.9, young people don't want to be farmers, their population is in decline for many reasons...
Robot farming is critical to their bio and economic survival.
That fact alone is mind blowing to me. And awesome.
Re: Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
#5Now this is innovation.
Re: Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
#6I'm a bit puzzled that the reaction on the Guardian to this development is primarily one of fear that robots are taking our jobs. Isn't anyone excited about how all this production and efficiency is going to make food extremely cheap?
Robots/Automation has already made food cheap. Modern farmers are literally 1,000x as effective as their medieval equivalents. At this point the human factor is generally fairly negligible compared to other inputs (seed, land, machinery, etc.).
Re: Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
#7And they don't even need immigrants.
Re: Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
#8Neat, particularly for urban applications, but it'll never be as cost effective as actual field planted crops.
The future of robotic farms is in the fields, not in the factory.
Re: Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
#9> The robots will do everything from re-planting young seedlings to watering, trimming and harvesting crops.
Has the author been to a farm in the past 20 years? Most crops today are not planted by hand, or watered by hand, or harvested by hand. (Harvesting is still the most labor intensive part of farming for a few fruits, but automation isn't far off.)
I think the most interesting part of this farm is not the automation, but the water saving, the reduction in pesticides, and the decision to use grow lights indoors instead of sunlight.
Re: Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
#10Artificially-lit indoor farming is neato and will be a great technology to bring into space, but makes almost no sense on earth.
Basically, it requires expensive infrastructure and way too much electricity (https://gigaom.com/2015/12/29/indoor-farming-good-for-cannab...).
Maybe robotically-farmed greenhouses won't have this problem.