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Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

radionz.co.nz

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Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#11

Post by taneq »

nmstoker wrote: post #6

Good to be pushing the limits etc etc, but is this really at all close to being practical yet? Just think of the scale of NZ farms vs the DJI range. Unless they can land on remote charging stations dotted about the terrain it's going to run out of power far too quickly to explore much of the farm aside from a brief flyover. Back of the envelope calc: if an avg NZ farm is 252 hectares [2], and we charitably assume it'…

I don't think they'd try to patrol the entire property on a single battery. More likely just fly out to do a spot check, return to base, swap batteries, etc. If your options are ride a quad bike out there (navigating terrain, fences etc.) or fly straight there and back at 60km/h+ I imagine the drone is a far quicker way to keep an eye on things.

You can keep a Spark in the air almost indefinitely (only landing to swap batteries) with three batteries if you don't mind charging them while they're hot (shortens the battery life a bit) so I'd imagine a Mavic Pro would be able to do as well or better.

Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#12

Post by executivetech »

pixelpoet wrote: post #8

I was already on the fence about replacing humans with robots for e.g. driving, but dogs? Why would anyone want to replace dogs with robots? Worst trade ever.

Dogs cost a lot to maintain, think about Vet expense and Food.

Lithium batteries simply need electricity.

Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#13

Post by Lukas_Skywalker »

samcday wrote: post #2

> The latest drone model, the $3500 DJI Mavic Enterprise, can record sounds and play them over a speaker - allowing a dog's bark, or other noises, to be loudly projected across a paddock. Ok so basically it's just an off-the-shelf drone with a big speaker on top making barking noises. The most clever solutions are the simplest ones :) In my mind the next logical step would be AI that pilots the drones autonomously, m…

The autonomous milking robots are actually already in wide use for about a decade. There is even already an aftermarket for used milking robots in Europe. As far as I know they first fisinfect and then milk the cows.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GnNGPsVdYSA

Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#14

Post by mhh__ »

executivetech wrote: post #12
pixelpoet wrote: post #8

I was already on the fence about replacing humans with robots for e.g. driving, but dogs? Why would anyone want to replace dogs with robots? Worst trade ever.

Dogs cost a lot to maintain, think about Vet expense and Food. Lithium batteries simply need electricity.

How many dogs can you buy for the price of one drone? And what if it rains etc. Etc.

Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#15

Post by [deleted] »

executivetech wrote: post #12
pixelpoet wrote: post #8

I was already on the fence about replacing humans with robots for e.g. driving, but dogs? Why would anyone want to replace dogs with robots? Worst trade ever.

Dogs cost a lot to maintain, think about Vet expense and Food. Lithium batteries simply need electricity.

[deleted]

Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#16

Post by Normal_gaussian »

mhh__ wrote: post #14
executivetech wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dogs cost a lot to maintain, think about Vet expense and Food. Lithium batteries simply need electricity.

How many dogs can you buy for the price of one drone? And what if it rains etc. Etc.

Trained sheep dogs are £2k-5k

Annual costs are around £500-1k

They also require a significant time investment when not working.

Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#17

Post by platz »

samcday wrote: post #2

> The latest drone model, the $3500 DJI Mavic Enterprise, can record sounds and play them over a speaker - allowing a dog's bark, or other noises, to be loudly projected across a paddock. Ok so basically it's just an off-the-shelf drone with a big speaker on top making barking noises. The most clever solutions are the simplest ones :) In my mind the next logical step would be AI that pilots the drones autonomously, m…

So like interstellar

Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#18

Post by gwern »

samcday wrote: post #2

> The latest drone model, the $3500 DJI Mavic Enterprise, can record sounds and play them over a speaker - allowing a dog's bark, or other noises, to be loudly projected across a paddock. Ok so basically it's just an off-the-shelf drone with a big speaker on top making barking noises. The most clever solutions are the simplest ones :) In my mind the next logical step would be AI that pilots the drones autonomously, m…

> I remember reading years ago that there was some project to autonomously milk cows. The cows were taught to go into a special milking stall when they were ready to be milked. Each cow was RFID'd and even had their own Twitter handle that was posted to each time the cow was milked.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/13/technology/farm-technolog...

Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#19

Post by lelf »

executivetech wrote: post #12
pixelpoet wrote: post #8

I was already on the fence about replacing humans with robots for e.g. driving, but dogs? Why would anyone want to replace dogs with robots? Worst trade ever.

Dogs cost a lot to maintain, think about Vet expense and Food. Lithium batteries simply need electricity.

Dogs don’t require charging every 20–30 minutes.

Dogs can fly^Wrun without remote control.

Re: Barking drones used on farms instead of sheep dogs

#20

Post by anoncoward111 »

dan-robertson wrote: post #10
jobigoud wrote: post #7

Surely sheeps haven't evolved to respond specifically to dogs barking?

Most living sheep probably do know what a dogs bark sounds like, however

Would they respond similarly to a DJI blasting Slayer music?

That would make me move, at least!

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