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Open Source Farming Robot

farm.bot

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Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#121

Post by constantcrying »

naasking wrote: post #119
constantcrying wrote: post #118

Seems an interesting engineering project, but like a terrible product. Who is the customer? If you like gardening, why would you pay thousands of dollars so that you don't need to do it? If you don't like gardening, you obviously wouldn't be interested in having a robot do it for you. I just can't imagine who would buy this. Gardening can be done very cheap and I believe that most people do it because they like spend…

> If you don't like gardening, you obviously wouldn't be interested in having a robot do it for you Why? Do people who don't like gardening not like gardens or fresh produce? I just don't see how you reached this conclusion.

I gave a list of reasons for why people might light to do gardening. In that list zero of the points benefit from having a robot do it for you.

Why do you just ask the most banal questions instead of reading my post and responding to the argument I made?

>Do people who don't like gardening not like gardens or fresh produce? I just don't see how you reached this conclusion.

Yes, if you don't ready post you don't know how I reached that conclusion.

If you just like fresh produce go to a farmers market.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#122

Post by RobotToaster »

Grimblewald wrote: post #65
SoftTalker wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't rain fall on the leaves as much as the soil?

Part of the problem is water composition. Water which contians fertilizers, surfactants etc is going to damage the protective waxy layer on leaves, while rain water will do so less. Next, when watering youre doing so as frequently as the plants can make use of, to encourage maximal growth rates. It would never rain that frequently. finally, the size of droplets is different. Rain drops tend to be big and fat and roll…

Why would you water your plants with surfactants/soap?

Genuine question, does it help the plants in some way?

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#123

Post by stevekemp »

Loughla wrote: post #26
_heimdall wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be better off doing the farming the old fashioned way if the goal is to feed a family. Farming is a terrible business to be in today, but that's mainly due to the abysmal profit margins. When your goal is to feed your family rather than turn a profit, that stops mattering. Most people with any yard or outdoor space could get to the point of growing/raising a large portion of their own food without too much inve…

I've talked about this on this site over the years. My family is close to providing enough food on its own little farm for the whole family, all year (except dairy products and wheat products). It has taken decades. And about 15 acres. And honestly I don't know how many hours. Tens and tens of thousands. You can grow a small amount of your own food "without too much investment or work". To replace a substantial porti…

Hell I figured I eat about one onion a week, and one whole garlic bulb. I planted 75 onions and 40 garlic bulbs expecting that that would keep me going for a year.

Not even close. Between some of them dying, many of them producing tiny output, and the difficulty of keeping them stored I exhausted my harvest in about four months.

I have a small patch of land, 10m x 10m, and I grow potatoes, garlic, cucumbers, and similar things. But I quickly realized I would never become self-sufficient, not unless I dedicated the whole patch of land to 100% potatoes, which would be far less fun and start to feel like work.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#124

Post by loftsy »

getpost wrote: post #30

It sill looks like the software is written by people who don't know how to care for plants. You don't spray water on leaves as shown in the video; you'll just end up with fungus infestation. You water the soil and nourish the microorganisms that facilitate nutrient absorption in roots. But, I don't see any reason the technology can't be adapted to do the right thing.

You seriously think they haven't thought of that? I have no association with this project but it has been going for many years, has sold to many customers and institutions and the pictures certainly look like many healthy plants. Probably there is a cost/benefit trade-off to engineering watering at the soil level. Perhaps leaves would get damaged by the hardware.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#125

Post by hkt »

I used to love things like this, now I realise that actually caring for living things is quite nice and life affirming, and spending yet more time behind a screen really is not. 40 hours+ per week obligate online-time plus recreation is not a great way to live life. Our working lives are too long and our hours per week are too many. The sooner we learn to touch grass regularly, the better. Robots are evidently not the way to do this.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#126

Post by naasking »

constantcrying wrote: post #121
naasking wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't like gardening, you obviously wouldn't be interested in having a robot do it for you Why? Do people who don't like gardening not like gardens or fresh produce? I just don't see how you reached this conclusion.

I gave a list of reasons for why people might light to do gardening. In that list zero of the points benefit from having a robot do it for you. Why do you just ask the most banal questions instead of reading my post and responding to the argument I made? >Do people who don't like gardening not like gardens or fresh produce? I just don't see how you reached this conclusion. Yes, if you don't ready post you don't know…

Nothing you wrote in this or the original post implies that people who don't like gardening wouldn't want to have a garden on their own property managed by a robot.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#127

Post by RobotToaster »

torlok wrote: post #106

This is a Juicero of farming. The whole setup is easily replaced with a raised garden bed and a drip hose. Hearing about this a few years back, I was hoping it would at least do some weed control, but no.

> I was hoping it would at least do some weed control, but no.

Looks like it does do weeding, kinda https://genesis.farm.bot/v1.7/assembly/tools

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#128

Post by snickmy »

antoniojtorres wrote: post #84

This worries me from a positioning standpoint. I imagine a large amount of people with a garden bed, even a large one, garden because they like it, this would get in the way of that. The device doesn’t appear like it would scale well to anything large enough, and even then it would compete with much more sophisticated solutions that do this. I feel like it’s actual market may end up being pretty narrow, not that it i…

Do you have any link to more sophisticated solutions ? genuine ask

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#129

Post by [deleted] »

aydyn wrote: post #60
6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is that using the CNC style design for everything makes it a simpler system? Watering from the soil may be better, but harder to automate to such an extreme? Automating the setup of irrigation lines with a CNC head seems like a pretty cool project though.

Drip irrigation is a once and done setup and also automated. I feel like this project is insanely cool, but ultimately not practically useful at the pricepoint.

[deleted]
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