The rise of the robot farmer

The pitch from Small Robot Company's home page (https://www.smallrobotcompany.com/):

> We’re an agri-tech start up commercialising a deceptively simple idea: small robots not big tractors.

> Because unfortunately big tractors are neither efficient nor environmentally friendly. Currently, 95% of energy is used ploughing. And ploughing is only necessary because of heavy machinery crushing soil.

> We are building robots that will seed and care for each individual plant in your crop. They will only feed and spray the plants that need it, giving them the perfect levels nutrients and support, with no waste.

> This level of detail allows you to be kinder to soil, kinder to the environment, more efficient, more precise and more productive. It’s the best of all worlds. An increased yield, as well as minimal chemical usage. So you can increase revenues by up to 40%, reduce costs by up to 60%.

> Our robots are being designed and built by farmers, for farmers. Because we have spent the last year talking to you, we know you don’t want to buy robots. You are worried about the cost, and what happens if they break down. Instead you can lease our robots through a Farming as a Service (FaaS) model.

Obviously it may not be as good as it sounds. But it sounds amazing.

Also these quotes from the article about scale were interesting:

> The agility of agricultural robots means small farms with compact fields will no longer be at a disadvantage; independent shops and restaurants will be able to grow their produce on smallholdings efficiently tended by Rachel-like machines.

> ...

> “Most people think this is going to be expensive, is going to do everyone out of a job and is going to be good for the big farms, not the small farms,” he says. “It’s actually the exact opposite. The big farms are all about economies of scale: big fields, big tractors. We are developing small machines. I believe the extra production we need to feed the planet is going to come from small farms that can’t use those economies of scale.”

I love the idea of a farmer on 2 acres competing with Big Ag on price.

This. . . doesn't sound convincing to me.

Soil displacement is a function of machine weight AND surface area of tires/treads. Additionally, I'd expect the sharp edges of steel treads to disturb soil much worse than a similarly-weighted tractor with rubber tires.

Without doing extensive calculations, my anecdotal evidence is that I've seen bulldozer track "scars" from a single path that are decades old, while the damage from thousands of bicycles collectively veering from a paved path onto grass appears to heal itself in a year or two.

I've been thinking about a suite of robots on the residential level that could not only mow the grass and edge it, but also shovel snow, and perhaps eventually prune plants and pick the harvest. Would such a suite (or a base plus a suite of attachments) be practically affordable soon (say, cost less than $5k retail)?

Edit: oops, I guess this should be directed at the small robot company, not the space bots with laser company.

Is there an update to this story or is it not true or some other possibility?

https://www.wired.com/story/when-it-comes-to-gorillas-google...

If you prefer a story not on wired (sometimes it shows a subscription nag for me) - https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/12/16882408/google-racist-go...

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