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Open Source Farming Robot

farm.bot

141–150 of 369 posts

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a product for gardening and selling it to people who don't like gardening is genuinely retarded. With this robot you still have to do gardening, only somewhat less. If you don't like gardening why would you spend 2k on a robot doing it for you instead of buying the produce?

You seem to be struggling with the idea that someone might want the results of hard work without actually doing that hard work, especially if they can get those results by playing with something they do enjoy, like robotics. Let me know when that sinks in.

Are you aware of supermarkets? There you can buy food that others have produced for you, admission to a supermarket is usually free and food can be bought in minutes instead of produced over months.

Is this your project? Why are you so emotional over it being a shit product?

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#142
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.

> The rotary tool features a 24 volt DC motor, interchangeable implements, and an adjustable motor angle allowing FarmBot to perform light duty weed whacking, soil surface milling, and drilling operations.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#143

I think it's like, "I want to help in an industry I don't know anything about". This is not scalable. I understand that this person would like to help, but this is not the help that Farmers and needed. I wonder if he asked farmers about their problems before creating this project.

It's not targeted at farmers clearly. The page literally says the xl version is for a family of four

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#144
I don't want to be accused of pedantry...but isn't this a gardening robot? I don't see how it scales to fields.

I don't really see what problem it solves. Growing in a raised bed with drip irrigation looks a lot less hassle than setting up a giant cnc watering machine. If you mulch once a year you don't need to add nutrients to a no dog bed at all.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#145
If it was just a automated irrigation system and a camera with some detection for seeing if the plants look oka and can send a ping if a human needs to intervene. I remember hearing about this year's ago, and find it really cool, but it probably does to little, or is to expensive to be able to justify.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#146

Having watched Clarkson's Farm, I can't help but feel that farming is extremely antiquated. The sensitivity to unexpected weather and the low profit margins despite the high investments of time and money seem terrible. I can't see us as an advanced species doing this in 100 years, except for specialty experiences.

>Having watched Clarkson's Farm, I can't help but feel that farming is extremely antiquated. That's like saying you watched The Bachelor and now have Opinions about marriage.

You're telling me I have no clue. I don't disagree. But what would be much more interesting is for you to address the points I made.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#147
post #89
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably? But spraying water on leaves is not only the way water naturally gets to plants, it's often the only practical way to water crops at scale. Center-pivot irrigation has dramatically increased the amount of and reliability of arable cropland, while being dramatically less sensitive to topography and preparation than flood irrigation. The advice to "water the soil, not the leaves" is founded in manual watering…

Drip irrigation is kind of a thing out here in the desert...

And then there is burried drip irrigation...

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#148
post #104

Having watched Clarkson's Farm, I can't help but feel that farming is extremely antiquated. The sensitivity to unexpected weather and the low profit margins despite the high investments of time and money seem terrible. I can't see us as an advanced species doing this in 100 years, except for specialty experiences.

Modern farming is anything but antiquated. A lot of science goes into it, and it's the most efficient use of national resources to produce food. The downsides you mentioned is purely the fault of the market, not farming itself.

I understand that a lot of science and technology goes into modern farming, and that it's much better than it used to be. You did not address one of the main downsides I mentioned, which is that it still seems to be extremely reliant on the weather.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be struggling with the idea that someone might want the results of hard work without actually doing that hard work, especially if they can get those results by playing with something they do enjoy, like robotics. Let me know when that sinks in.

Are you aware of supermarkets? There you can buy food that others have produced for you, admission to a supermarket is usually free and food can be bought in minutes instead of produced over months. Is this your project? Why are you so emotional over it being a shit product?

It might be difficult, but maybe strain your imagination to consider scenarios where people live remotely, off grid, or in areas with unreliable supply chains, or they might even live right next door to be more self-sufficient. Accepting that other people might have different values than you can be challenging, but I have confidence you can do it.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#150
post #85

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…

It makes more sense targeted towards "people that like robots" rather than "people that want to grow their own food". I'm in a rural area and my first thought seeing this was "Good kit to play with for a growing teenager interested in agricultural automation" rather than "Serious industrial end use tooling".

My partner likes gardening. I like robots. This might work for us.

That’s a narrow audience though..

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