Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Open Source Farming Robot

farm.bot

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 236 posts

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#71

Post by woutgaze »

dhicks6345789 wrote: post #61
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…

> all I really want is a slug laser Even better: a slug-hunting robot powered by fermented slugs: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~eli/tmp/slugbot.html The project is from circa-2000, I remember being impressed by the idea at the time, and I'd have thought slug-hunting robots would be more of a common thing by now - turns out robotics for agriculture are hard.

> a slug-hunting robot powered by fermented slugs

Isn’t that called a duck?

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#72

Post by bobiny »

mikepurvis wrote: post #55
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

As a fellow backyard raised bed hipster, part of the point for me is going out and tending it. I struggle to see the value in this unless it’s about scaling.

I get automatic watering, especially in arid climates, but planting and weed plucking is excessive imo.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#73

Post by kortex »

bobiny wrote: post #38
kortex wrote: post #34

I've built robots. I've built greenhouses. I like software and the occasional bit of farming. Thirs looks cute and fun, and I hope they iterate, but it's not really solving the right problems, and introduces its own. 1 - there are no straight lines on a farm. Maybe in a hydro setup built on concrete slab, in which case, why robot? 2 - needs a way to cover more ground. If it's not able to travel linearly indefinitely…

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

That's exactly what I have and I'm telling you, it's still impractical. One, my greenhouse is a 24x13' footprint (which is pretty much the minimum useable with for a walk-in), with 3 bed rows 16' long, 2 or 4' wide. So I'd need 3 robot setups. Beds are long and skinny to facilitate human ergonomics. The shown examples are way too wide for raised beds, unless they are the walk-on type. So I'd still benefit from a robot which could straddle the bed and be easy to move from one bed to another.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#74

Post by justsomeperson »

sgt wrote: post #60
jasondozell wrote: post #13

No doubt the tech is interesting but conceptually this is pretty awful. Anyone who has done it knows if you have irrigation sorted there is very little needed for seedlings to grow to full size. Even with no irrigation we’re only talking 5mins watering on dry days. Adding all this electronics and metal to an otherwise organic and natural process is environmentally, economically and spiritually detrimental.

I thought the same. Why not just sort out an automated irrigation system, and do the initial seeding manually? Even with a robot there will be manual work like cleaning weeds, pruning, etc.

weeding and pest control is where the real utility for a farm robot would come in.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#75

Post by kortex »

justsomeperson wrote: post #68
kortex wrote: post #34

I've built robots. I've built greenhouses. I like software and the occasional bit of farming. Thirs looks cute and fun, and I hope they iterate, but it's not really solving the right problems, and introduces its own. 1 - there are no straight lines on a farm. Maybe in a hydro setup built on concrete slab, in which case, why robot? 2 - needs a way to cover more ground. If it's not able to travel linearly indefinitely…

How about something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spidercam Where it can be suspended above the field and moved to any point above the plant and can be raised as crops grow?

Not the worst idea, though IIRC that style of robot needs a fair amount of tension in the wires in order to minimize droop.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#76

Post by bserge »

woutgaze wrote: post #71
dhicks6345789 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all I really want is a slug laser Even better: a slug-hunting robot powered by fermented slugs: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~eli/tmp/slugbot.html The project is from circa-2000, I remember being impressed by the idea at the time, and I'd have thought slug-hunting robots would be more of a common thing by now - turns out robotics for agriculture are hard.

> 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.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#77

Post by kortex »

nobody_nowhere wrote: post #65
kortex wrote: post #34

I've built robots. I've built greenhouses. I like software and the occasional bit of farming. Thirs looks cute and fun, and I hope they iterate, but it's not really solving the right problems, and introduces its own. 1 - there are no straight lines on a farm. Maybe in a hydro setup built on concrete slab, in which case, why robot? 2 - needs a way to cover more ground. If it's not able to travel linearly indefinitely…

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

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#78

Post by bserge »

foxhop wrote: post #14
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…

Slug lazers ~= small flock of ducks

Hens would be less destructive, I think.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#79

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

Would be useful to see some performance metrics, and, service history.

How much produce is produced?

How much time spent cleaning, repairing, or otherwise keeping it running

What preventive maintenance is required?

i.e., other than a learning tool, if you just consider the small garden users, what's the return?

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#80

Post by bserge »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #62
bobiny wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaves probably want some moisture too. If you run pipes straight to the stem you'll have to rearrange them each time you changes here individual plants are which is harder to automate.

Well, my understanding (and common advice) is actually not to water the leaves at all if possible as that has no benefit apart from helping diseases set in.

Depends on the plant.

Leaves absorb water, too, fwiw.

Post reply on HN