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Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]

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Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]

#181

Post by ablob »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #110
joshspankit wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you know that natural swarm dynamics completely baffled us up until a few years ago: How do birds communicate well enough to stay on a group? How do they know which direcion to go? How does it look like a singular consciousness is undulating through hundreds or thousands of individuals? We marvelled and were dumbfounded. But we had made it so much more complicated because we couldn’t see the few simple rules that…

> But we had made it so much more complicated because we couldn’t see the few simple rules that each of them were following. I hope you don't mean "Boids" and the three-four simple rules, because that's just an approximation of a swarm behavior made for artistic purposes - i.e. the result is supposed to pass as a flock of birds or a school of fish to casual onlookers (e.g. gamers, audience of a movie), and not to be…

Even if it were "Boids", I don't think it worsens the argument by a lot. The essence of the statement is that complex behavior can emerge from a simple ruleset.

I'd like to add, that while individual behavior is difficult to predict, a general motion prediction can be much easier. (Think shepherds, for example)

Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]

#182

Post by Tade0 »

hericium wrote: post #171

It still uses some "95% less" chemicals to kill plants. Why not laser, some pull-from-ground mechanism or scissors to get rid of unwanted plants?

Many weeds store most of their energy/nutrients in deep roots. You cut down the visible part and shortly after that it regrows like it's nothing.

The city gardening service in my neighbourhood is waging constant war on what appears to be a forest of bushes now, which they unwittingly sow and expand through cutting plants with ripe fruit.

Not only do the parent plants regrow, a new generation is formed each time they do it.

My relative is an agricultural engineer and her recommendation is a drop of Roundup on top of every unwanted specimen.

Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]

#183

Post by esperent »

modeless wrote: post #12

Seems 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…

> Seems like it should hoe each weed instead of spraying it.

Huh, I actually thought it was using a laser and the 95% chemicals meant through the entire farming process. In that case it's probably much less than 95% chemical use overall, there's still pesticides and fertilizer to consider, not to mention chemicals used in cleaning and packaging.

I wonder what kind of power you'd need to laser weeds at that speed? Now that I think about it, probably like, a lot. And maybe it'd heat up the surrounding plants too much.

Spraying with that much accuracy is still pretty cool though.

Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]

#184

Post by esperent »

illys wrote: post #46
modeless wrote: post #12

Seems 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.

> I saw on one of the illustrations that the spray is made of acetic acid.

The cynic in me wants to point out that this is basically a commerce, so of course they use the best sounding chemical possible. Will they still use that by the time it becomes a commercial product? I guess only time will tell.

Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]

#186

Post by CardenB »

doublerabbit wrote: post #135
computerdork wrote: post #57

This 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 obviou…

> John Deere > pesticide sprayer Says all about the company.

The sprayer significantly reduces the amount of pesticide needed. It’s not crop dusting, it’s precision spraying.

Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]

#187

Post by shellfishgene »

thesausageking wrote: post #43

I'm fascinated by Freethink, the company that creates videos like this for tech companies. Has anyone worked with this or similar companies? How much does it cost and how was your experience? https://www.freethink.com/about/for-brands

The video was a little frustrating as it never actually explains how the robot works...

Re: Robot treats 500k plants per hour with 95% less chemicals [video]

#190

Post by ajuc »

sshine wrote: post #180
jay_kyburz wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, instead of a swarm you could have one gigantic arm that can reach anywhere.

This could simultaneously absolve the need for autonomous vehicles, because whenever you need to go somewhere, you could just make the giant arm put you there.

That's called a train. It's great. You can read a book while you are transported, it uses very little power to get you there, it can be 0 emission, there are no traffic jams. Sadly it's not fashionable cause you can't show off how wealthy you are by using it.
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