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Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

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Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#271

Post by tardy »

tomhoward wrote: post #244
kaveh_h wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why must the device be so cheap? Is the intent to have one serve each plant? Why can’t one serve many plants?

Yes, that’s how it’s done now, but it’s a matter of the precision vs cost tradeoff. Right now it costs about $750-$3000 to set up each monitoring site, so growers can only afford to install a low number of devices per acre [1], thus a high number of plants per device. In that case you’re not optimizing to anywhere the specific requirements of each plant, you’re assuming (often falsely) that all the plants in that are…

It seems very wasteful to me to have a lot of small devices sitting out in the elements, how resilient are they going to be?

Wouldn't a device that travels like a snail along a cable or something, while less glamorous than a self propelled (and navigating) device, deliver a reading for a whole line of plants every day without all of the eroding parts per plant?

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#272

Post by eru »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #258
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t really make sense, Local resources exist in abundance because transportation cost is not zero. Iceland has more geothermal power than it knows what to do with, north of Canada has abundance of fresh water but it’s uneconomical to move it to California, etc.

> Iceland has more geothermal power than it knows what to do with Build more aluminum smelters and data centers!

Yes. (And they are already doing that.) You can also build a high voltage direct current undersea cable to some other bigger grid.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#273

Post by tomhoward »

tardy wrote: post #271
tomhoward wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that’s how it’s done now, but it’s a matter of the precision vs cost tradeoff. Right now it costs about $750-$3000 to set up each monitoring site, so growers can only afford to install a low number of devices per acre [1], thus a high number of plants per device. In that case you’re not optimizing to anywhere the specific requirements of each plant, you’re assuming (often falsely) that all the plants in that are…

It seems very wasteful to me to have a lot of small devices sitting out in the elements, how resilient are they going to be? Wouldn't a device that travels like a snail along a cable or something, while less glamorous than a self propelled (and navigating) device, deliver a reading for a whole line of plants every day without all of the eroding parts per plant?

It’s pretty normal to have devices out in the elements now, it’s just a matter of how many. Yes having a device on literally every plant will probably always be overkill, unless they are so cheap and easy to replace that it doesn’t matter when one gets damaged. More likely it’d be optimal to have a device every x-number of plants - which is what’s done now but the number of devices per number of plants needs to be higher than is currently conventional to increase precision.

Having machines moving around taking readings “each day” is insufficient, as during hot conditions the soil/plant moisture changes too rapidly. You need to take readings at least once every hour or even every 30 or 15 minutes in order to be able to start irrigating immediately when the moisture level starts dropping rapidly.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#274

Post by methuselah_in »

gumby wrote: post #32

This is so great. My long term dream is that robotics take over farming, individually plucking each weed or weevil, and metering just the right amount of water for each individual plant, so that all the crops are organic. Most of the chemicals (yes, including nitrogen fertilizers) offset labor, so when the labor is free we shouldn’t need them. And people won’t have to spend their lives in stoop-back work or exposed t…

And please enlighten me what will happen to countries where people are dependent on farming? Rather creating new varities of crops that are more chemical resistant?

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#275

Post by tardy_one »

tomhoward wrote: post #273
tardy wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems very wasteful to me to have a lot of small devices sitting out in the elements, how resilient are they going to be? Wouldn't a device that travels like a snail along a cable or something, while less glamorous than a self propelled (and navigating) device, deliver a reading for a whole line of plants every day without all of the eroding parts per plant?

It’s pretty normal to have devices out in the elements now, it’s just a matter of how many. Yes having a device on literally every plant will probably always be overkill, unless they are so cheap and easy to replace that it doesn’t matter when one gets damaged. More likely it’d be optimal to have a device every x-number of plants - which is what’s done now but the number of devices per number of plants needs to be hi…

For farming on a forest floor, I would expect overly complex variance.. For farming in a field, why isn't the deviance you calculate between the needs of plant location 1 & 2 on a frequent basis not a reasonable estimate to update the predicted needs of one plant every time you pass over the other?

I can imagine that a lot of small devices becomes economically viable.. I find that unfortunate since I think it will be a lot of permanent ewaste lost in fields relative to very temporary water optimization benefits.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#276

Post by fennecbutt »

gumby wrote: post #32

This is so great. My long term dream is that robotics take over farming, individually plucking each weed or weevil, and metering just the right amount of water for each individual plant, so that all the crops are organic. Most of the chemicals (yes, including nitrogen fertilizers) offset labor, so when the labor is free we shouldn’t need them. And people won’t have to spend their lives in stoop-back work or exposed t…

Lmao, I'd love for this utopia, which has been completely achievable for decades now but you know...prevented by endlessly chasing profit and making the rich richer.

So many people are guilty of it on HN as well; as rich tech workers your hackles raise when I suggest things like making owning second homes illegal. We're all part of the problem.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#277

Post by rurban »

doubloon wrote: post #117
ensocode wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am searching for solutions in this field. Do you have any links to any consumer hardware for this. like drones which can cut down small invasive plants which were selected by AI?

Tertill cuts weeds but the ai is “if object is tall and firm enough to trip my bumper, turn”

I do work in this field. The AI and the sensors are much better than that. It can recognize each plant, builds a 3D model, a growth model and does disease detection. It controls robots, lighting (in vertical farming) and water.

Colleagues from the university did the drone things, and Lora sensors, but they are still way too expensive for the average farmers here in Germany. We should concentrate on the SW, and the Chinese on the HW.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#278

Post by kbutler »

0xffff2 wrote: post #239
kbutler wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most (many?) US jurisdictions, you don't need a driver's license to drive on private property.

I would go so far as to claim ALL jurisdictions in the US. Does anyone have a counterexample?

I had thought that as well, but California provided a counter-example, at least for "privately owned roads which are shown as private roads on maps filed in the County Recorder’s office":

"9.24.020 Driving unlawful without license. No person shall drive a motor vehicle upon a private road unless they hold a driver’s license issued under the provisions of the California Vehicle Code, except such persons as are expressly exempted under the California Vehicle Code."

https://www.codepublishing.com/CA/SantaCruzCounty/html/Santa....

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#279

Post by eru »

skybrian wrote: post #268
eru wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Local abundance is traditional: fruit and vegetables in season. It's still true for people with big gardens, when it's not worth their while to sell it. Yes, that was basically my point: participating in modern economies tends to smooth out local abundance. [0] That's good overall! Less waste, more innovation. But, of course, there are certain specific things lost to be nostalgic about. You are also right that wate…

Yes, agreed. To continue, though, I think it's not just nostalgia; people who benefit from local abundance can lose something from more efficiency. AirBnB is another example. There are benefits to living in a desirable location and they're often free for the residents. If the neighbors are, effectively, selling off those amenities, it benefits them and their customers, but not you. And that's why some communities pla…

> AirBnB is another example. There are benefits to living in a desirable location and they're often free for the residents.

To be more precise, they are baked into land values / rent.

> I believe the Coase theorem suggests that paying off the neighbors would be somehow efficient, if a deal can be reached. It can be difficult to agree on a price, though.

Yes, transaction costs always kill you.

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