Open Source Farming Robot • Hacker News Board

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#181

Post by ecocentrik » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:01 PM UTC

siffin wrote: post #173

Waterluvian wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every family having to have a robot instead of a handful of tractors for every ten thousand families or so. And that is likely a less optimal use of acreage. I think what you might actually be advocating for is “people should convert more residential land into gardens” which is always fun. I love my garden as a hobby. We keep trying to un-invent the division of labour. Edited for unnecessary pre-coffee poor behaviour…

[flagged]

Just imagine all the packaging material that would be required to get everyone a new farm bot every few years.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#182

Post by James_K » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:02 PM UTC

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.

They have these things called farmers' markets where you can buy fresh produce and it's much cheaper than $4000. You could probably buy fresh produce for a whole year and not have it come to that total. A year's worth of food is likely more than the robot could produce in your lifetime, so the market is a much better deal.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#183

Post by lukas099 » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:02 PM UTC

James_K wrote: post #176

apexalpha wrote: post #167

This looks fun but not really useful. My hope would be that in 20 years everyone has a little bot that 24/7 runs a garden for you and provides every family with 80% of their vegetable need. Imagine the amount of acreage we could return to nature / co2 sinking.

Each person owning their own farm is orders of magnitude less efficient that one large farm serving many people.

I agree with you overall, but some vegetables were found in a recent study to be more efficiently grown at home. Also, a lot of people already have turfgrass farms and converting those to veggie farms would be a huge net win. Finally, if you think that people have a fairly static amount of time/energy to spend on hobbies, hobby farming would likely be a net benefit because some hobbies have much greater negative externalities.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#184

Post by tastyfreeze » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:03 PM UTC

ein0p wrote: post #92

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.

I had the same thoughts when watching this. Cucumbers either require twine, in which case they grow quite tall), or each plant will take up half that raised bed. Tomatoes are not planted directly from a seed, you first need to grow seedlings, a very laborious process that’s hard to automate. Tomatoes can also get quite tall, with some plants exceeding 5 feet. You don’t need such elaborate setups for irrigation either…

Growing tomatoes as starts that are transplanted is not required if your frost free season is long enough. The benefit of using starts is you can give plants a head start and only plant the strongest.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#185

Post by wood_spirit » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:03 PM UTC

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.

A few years ago I saw on a tropical island some open ended poly tunnels growing salads and things that, in my own open air garden, are very heavily predated. They had a simple but very effective solution: they ran misters for a few minutes every hour. This made an environment that the plants thrived and insects left alone. And they lost very little water (on an island where fresh water was conserved generally) even though the tunnels were not closed at the ends. Fungus wasn’t mentioned when I asked about them. It was very simple tech level but I was struck by the smarts and knowledge behind it.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#186

Post by lukas099 » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:03 PM UTC

apexalpha wrote: post #167

This looks fun but not really useful. My hope would be that in 20 years everyone has a little bot that 24/7 runs a garden for you and provides every family with 80% of their vegetable need. Imagine the amount of acreage we could return to nature / co2 sinking.

I would love a drone or robot that selectively kills invasive weeds and leaves native ones.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#187

Post by AtlasBarfed » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:04 PM UTC

James_K wrote: post #176

apexalpha wrote: post #167

This looks fun but not really useful. My hope would be that in 20 years everyone has a little bot that 24/7 runs a garden for you and provides every family with 80% of their vegetable need. Imagine the amount of acreage we could return to nature / co2 sinking.

Each person owning their own farm is orders of magnitude less efficient that one large farm serving many people.

Home gardens are cheaper than stores, since seeds are cheaper than finished fruits/veggies. Of course it depends on free labor of The Gardener which this may address.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#188

Post by locococo » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:04 PM UTC

James_K wrote: post #176

apexalpha wrote: post #167

This looks fun but not really useful. My hope would be that in 20 years everyone has a little bot that 24/7 runs a garden for you and provides every family with 80% of their vegetable need. Imagine the amount of acreage we could return to nature / co2 sinking.

Each person owning their own farm is orders of magnitude less efficient that one large farm serving many people.

For homeowners with a garden it's not necessarily about efficiency. I have a little garden and the food quality is just way better in terms of freshness and taste.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#189

Post by SpaghettiX » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:06 PM UTC

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…

This checks out with someone I know who grows their own plants, and me, who doesn't spend time growing plants. We're both not interested in the product.

Maybe it has a niche. Millionaires who want to go on holiday but still like to grow plants. It seems more like a gimmick.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#190

Post by rob » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 1:06 PM UTC

naasking wrote: post #149

constantcrying wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

He's going to blow his mind when he learns I have two AeroGardens in my kitchen, but don't want to do any farming. I could just hop down to the grocery store to buy the same amount in minutes. I can't believe the company is still in business!