Re:An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data...
by jessaustin on Sunday May 17, 2020 @07:27AM
(#23211242)
How could a robot keep more than a couple of acres weeded? Small amounts of acreage in real food would be more valuable to humans than vast tracts of frankenfood like Monsanto soybeans. There are already "at-scale" solutions for that crap: just spray it (and everything downwind!) with tons of noxious chemicals.
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Re:An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data...
by TaylorAlexander on Sunday May 17, 2020 @02:41PM
(#23214176)
The other commenter is correct - swarms.
Also our robot is capable of spraying but will primarily use mechanical means to destroy weeds so there is no chemical use.
Re:An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data...
by jessaustin on Sunday May 17, 2020 @09:17PM
(#23217195)
Above you said "it feels like we need to target farms that are hundreds or thousands of acres to justify the engineering investment." That seems like a reason not to fund your startup, because farms like that already have chemical weed control and giant corporations that already zealously own their souls. I was trying to encourage you to think smaller. By acre, vegetables are much more valuable than wheat and corn and beans, and there are human labor inputs that robots could replace.
Re:An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data...
by TaylorAlexander on Monday May 18, 2020 @05:23AM
(#23220204)
The farms we’re looking to target are vegetable farms. They use human labor to weed their crops. The few I’ve spoken to have hundreds or thousands of acres total. They seem eager to get a robot like ours.
Re:An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data...
by jessaustin on Monday May 18, 2020 @08:25AM
(#23221440)
Haha I might have misread an "or" as an "of". Your robots sound great, a real benefit to humanity.
Re:An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data...
by TaylorAlexander on Monday May 18, 2020 @10:19AM
(#23222602)
Ahh yes hundreds “of” thousands would be huge!
Long term, I’d love to automate the entire process. We just have to start somewhere. Weeding seems like a safe place to start, and there’s plenty more work to be found once we get our foot in the door.
I’ll tell ya one thing - I love working with robots outside. I mostly work in the office but I love getting out to test the machine. :)
Re:An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data...
by jelliclesfarm on Sunday May 17, 2020 @01:13PM
(#23213401)
Small robots swarmed.