Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s next robots

Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by reizorc on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @05:29AM (#24490991)

I really wish they'd make tree planting robots

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Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by suby on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @08:06AM (#24491792)

I have to imagine that blanketing an area with seeds dropped from a flying drone would be far more effective than a ground based robot which planted trees. Obviously the success rate of a ground based robot would be far higher, but I think we'd be better off going for quantity over quality.

If that assumption is true, then we already have the tech to do this.

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Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by TeMPOraL on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @10:27AM (#24493010)

I recall when HN was discussing dropping seeds from an AC-130 few years ago, someone pointed out that it would be much more cost-effective to just hire locals to do it by hand. The same will probably apply to drone-planters.

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Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by toyg on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @11:30AM (#24493609)

Not even "locals" - depending on location, you could bus in (or even fly in) masses of low-paid low-skill workers from somewhere else, like it happens for other agri tasks.

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Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by RandallBrown on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @11:26AM (#24493564)

There are a few startups working on this. DroneSeed is the one I'm most familiar with.

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Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by jbob2000 on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @08:37AM (#24492031)

Trees plant themselves, they've been doing it for millions of years! What we need is an anti-deforesting robot.

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Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by webmaven on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @11:42AM (#24493727)

> Trees plant themselves, they've been doing it for millions of years! What we need is an anti-deforesting robot.

Do you mean a robot to guard the forest from loggers, or something else?

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Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by jbob2000 on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @01:21PM (#24494872)

It was tongue-in-cheek. Because if we'd be allowed to deploy a robot to stop loggers, then we'd also be allowed to just not let the loggers log.

The problem is humans are taking over nature. Planting a couple of trees here and there is pointless if you're going to cut them down again for real estate or farm developments.

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Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by peteradio on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @09:52AM (#24492705)

We have tractors already optimized for such things. You want 10000 trees planted in an hour? You had that tech about 60 years ago!

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Re:Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s... by postingawayonhn on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @11:36AM (#24493669)

Depends on the terrain. A lot of forestry land is on hillsides that are unsuitable for farming and are therefore difficult for tractors to access.

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