I worked with the founders of this company, sharp guys. Glad to see they are doing well.
Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
51–60 of 326 posts
Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
#52Seems like it should hoe each weed instead of spraying it. I guess that's a little harder to do. Maybe a lot harder. Two other things I thought were interesting in the video. One, the idea of mapping the whole field is pretty cool. There must be useful things you could do with a millimeter-scale 3D map of an entire field. Two, this is happening in California, just a few hours' drive from Silicon Valley. I hope some o…
I saw on one of the illustrations that the spray is made of acetic acid. Pretty natural product, aka vinegar at low concentration. Well targeted as they seem to do, I guess it is a good product to preserve the soil and wanted plants with no harmful residues.
That's cool, yeah, precise targeting should remove the need for highly toxic herbicide.
Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
#53The agriculture tech industry seems like a really fun and rewarding place to be. I can't wait to see what happens in the future. Would love a job like that.
Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
#54I'd love to work in this industry as a developer... coming from web/cloud what would the average interview be like? Is it more leetcode style? or system design? I would only want intermediate developer position at most for starters. What are some projects that would make someone stand out for AgTech Robotics stuff?
I interviewed with a few companies in that space last year and they were pretty much standard interviews. Some coding tests, take home projects, the usual stuff. If it looks interesting to you, definitely give it a shot.
Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Small Robot Company have a robot called Dick which uses "Non-Chemical Weeding", i.e. they zap the weed to kill it, and it's root. They use other small robots to do the mapping and planting. I really like the idea of small, specialised robots for different tasks. https://www.smallrobotcompany.com/weed-killing
Weed zapping is fascinating - but putting the kind of power electronics required to deliver sufficient voltage in a mobile robot is terrifying from an OHSA perspective. One group I'm familiar with are using 50kv (and "more than enough" amps) for the purpose.
I see no problem equipping a killer robot with lethal electricity and an AI guidance. It’s basically the same as Tesla autopilot beta, no?
Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
#56FarmWise is another company in the space. Their machines offer a targeted cultivation for crops like lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower. See the performance of the system below:
Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
#57This is an incredible idea and as others have mentioned below, there are other companies with products like this. In fact, John Deere released an AI controlled pesticide sprayer a little while back. It's supposed to be amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEbjcqIuvi0
https://www.deere.com/en/sprayers/see-spray-ultimate/
But, am sure having multiple players in the market is a good idea. Yeah, John Deere is obviously a behemoth and may not be as light a nimble as a good startup in advancing this tech! (and hopefully, they wont try to squash out the competition).
Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
#58Weeds are the enemy /s But really, the whole idea of having perfectly manicured fields like that with no sign of any weeds around seems like the real problem to me. Zero biodiversity…we wonder where the insects are going ?
>Weeds are the enemy
Yes.
>Zero biodiversity
Good.
Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
#59I'd love to work in this industry as a developer... coming from web/cloud what would the average interview be like? Is it more leetcode style? or system design? I would only want intermediate developer position at most for starters. What are some projects that would make someone stand out for AgTech Robotics stuff?
Getting in (assuming a typical robotics company/startup) is not that hard, just don't expect to get paid much (relative to most top tier tech compensation). Most of these "fun" fields all either significantly underpay, or are part of subsidiaries like Google X that are next to impossible to get in without exceptional pedigree.
Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]
#60This is an improvement within the current paradigm of "big ag", but IMHO tech is opening the possibility of a completely different way of doing things. For example, this comment which is below the linked video imagines a robot-maintained food forest, I think it's on point because I, too, believe that the future is swarms of small robots rather than a few big tractors:
> Imagine, a few years down the line, applying these principles to maintaining an edible polyculture ecosystem-farm. Not necessarily a big machine going through a flat field, but small drones tending to trees, vines, herbs, plants, pollinators and water features all in the location that is best for them based on local features. It could micromanage weeding and harvesting, but also composting, planting, grafting and nurturing keystone species and rare species while avoiding pesticide, nitrogen imbalance and soil compaction. A productive farm could look like the garden of Eden.