Open Source Farming Robot • Hacker News Board

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#141

Post by schmorptron » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

rahimiali wrote: post #114

rytis wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a crazy idea - they say you can do farming from anywhere using their app. So... What about Farming-as-a-Service. You assign users small patches, where they can do whatever they like, and how they like it, and any surviving vegetables are shipped to them. Sounds silly, and is mostly for lolz, may not be sustainable either, but who knows :) ?...

Clever idea. How do I get my harvest once it’s ready? Does someone have to harvest the plants for me and mail them to me?

In the video on the site they show a robot arm plucking carrots out of the ground and placing them into a basket, but that might have been from one of the research basket. But shipping them to you sounds reasonable, although packaging them so they don't rot and the distance might nullify any real ecological advantage.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#142

Post by schmorptron » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

taylorfinley wrote: post #10

I know cnc and farming, and I really don't see this product surviving. I can't find a shovel that lasts more than a few months on my small farm, I don't know how a big 3d printer is going to cut it in anything like real agricultural conditions. I would love to be wrong though, garden robots would be great, especially if they had lasers for slugs. Actually, forget the rest of the robot, all I really want is a slug las…

From the video it seems like there's a model that can switch tools - so if you install a night vision camera, strong laser and train some sort of fancy model to detect slugs that are not currently obscured by leaves, you might be able to laser them.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#143

Post by bluGill » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

qq4 wrote: post #123

bobiny wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a for small hipster raised bed farming in back yard. Maybe it doesn't have to scale to a size of a commercial farm

Slightly off topic, but what is it about raised beds? Why not till and fertilize the soil you already have?

There are a few advantages: the beds are raised do you don't have to bend over as far to tend them. The beds make it obvious where the place to walk is. The beds mean instead of rows of plants you have a contained solid mess which in turn means more plants per area (this is good for some plants, bad for others). Tilling is bad for soil and should be avoided whenever possible, the beds make it easier to not disturb the soil in ways that need tilling to fix. The beds allow you to have the type of soil best for the type of plant you are trying to grow - fertilizer doesn't change soil types.

Nothing magical about it, there are some advantages to raised beds, but other than the ergonomics everything can be done in any other type of garden if you try.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#144

Post by bobiny » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:45 PM UTC

debacle wrote: post #112

bobiny wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can damage the plant if you water leaves in bright sunshine, because water will act as a lens and leaves will get burned. Otherwise I'd follow nature: plants get water when it rains, so leaves should have some water too.

Watering at nightfall when the ambient temperature is below 70F is a recipe for rot as well. When it's cold, you water in the morning. When it's hot, you water at night.

I didn't know thank you.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#145

Post by AnimalMuppet » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:45 PM UTC

deeviant wrote: post #133

Oh hey this is my industry (robots in agriculture). I don't like this. It feels way too "Juicero" to me. Too cute, to inconsequential. It feels likely one would spend more time on building and maintaining this thing than work it actually saves and a significant amount the benefit of having a garden is working it with you hands and watching that work grow in fruition. Bots in the farm though, they are the real deal. R…

If you're willing to share, I'd be interested in knowing who you work for...

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#146

Post by nobody_nowhere » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:47 PM UTC

kortex wrote: post #77

nobody_nowhere wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re the weeding robot -- you may be thinking of https://tertill.com iRobot founders' new thing. Small, and undercapitalized, but promising.

Neat, and promising, though not the one I was thinking of. I think it might have been this one, Acorn by Twisted Fields: https://community.twistedfields.com/t/introducing-acorn-a-pr... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsyEIgKVM5E

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#147

Post by sfgweilr4f » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:49 PM UTC

The very definition of hacking applied to gardening. I think we need more agricultural robotics. This is a useful beginning and its been iterating for few years. Good stuff.

Some of the complaints about linear garden beds is just not valid. Different crops can definitely be linear, even grid-like. This idea can be scaled up with increasing complexity as needed.

It will be interesting to see where this kind of idea goes as the projects themselves itself grow up.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#148

Post by nobody_nowhere » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:49 PM UTC

jvanderbot wrote: post #102

nobody_nowhere wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re the weeding robot -- you may be thinking of https://tertill.com iRobot founders' new thing. Small, and undercapitalized, but promising.

Tertill is cool and all, but for a new garden, you still have to weed until the payplants are big enough to trigger "collisions". There's no magic in sensing: It just kills new growth.

Yeah, seems to assume you're going to put protectors around the 'good' plants or something at first. Still, I could see some interesting swarm behavior opportunities for the right types of plants and growth stages...

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#149

Post by arduinomancer » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:55 PM UTC

Looks cool but the cost/time to set this up seems way overkill for how small the plots are.

The smallest kit is $1500 USD.

The watering seems like the actual place where time could be saved but that could be accomplished with a basic automatic sprinkler.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#150

Post by bluGill » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 5:57 PM UTC

bserge wrote: post #76

woutgaze wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a slug-hunting robot powered by fermented slugs Isn’t that called a duck?

Ha. But actually, if most people weren't so averse to biological organisms, perhaps we would've had computer controlled ducks, rats, hens and other small animals by now. Why bother reinventing the whole thing when you could just replace (part of) their brains. Experimentation would be pretty gruesome though.

The problem is e-coli (and a few similar things). Animal poop is full of it, and we don't want that in our food supply. Machines don't leave e-coli behind to contaminate our food like biological organisms do. (hint wash your fresh food!)