Agricultural Robots: How They Make Farmers' Lives Easier

Garden work looks beautiful and simple only in the movies, but in reality it is hard labor that often goes poorly paid. Many agricultural companies and farmers with large plots of land face constant «staff turnover». As a result, talk is increasingly turning to tireless, never-complaining robots that have no flaws. 

Robotics in the agricultural industry is developing rapidly. Let's take a closer look at several companies that aim to make life easier for farmers. 

Robots in the greenhouse

Founded in 2016, the Israeli startup MetoMotion is developing the «Robotic Greenhouse Worker» (GRoW) to perform labor-intensive tasks in huge greenhouses around the world. Labor costs in greenhouses account for 30% to 50%, so it is more profitable to consider robots. 

The company's first application is harvesting tomatoes in greenhouses. GRoW combines advanced 3D vision technology and machine vision algorithms to identify and locate ripe fruit. The robot then coordinates several specially designed robotic arms. It even has its own storage system.

The autonomous robot is designed for full integration with the existing greenhouse infrastructure. MetoMotion estimates a 50% reduction in labor costs associated with harvesting.

Kiwi harvesting in New Zealand

The company Robotics Plus has developed a robotic apple packing machine that can gently handle up to 120 fruits per minute. But this is not the only project under way. Another is a robot that can help harvest more than 3 billion kiwis grown in New Zealand each year. 

Producers have long complained about labor shortages and the emergence of new varieties, which has made harvesting fruit at the right time nearly impossible. Information about future robots is still scarce, but they are expected to be highly technological and advanced. 

Robot farmer for weed control

Founded in 2015, the startup TartanSense is developing a robot to help small farmers who cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on agricultural equipment. The semi-autonomous robot roams the farm, identifies weeds and diseased plants, and then sprays them with the necessary chemicals. 

The company aims to help farmers in India with their largest agricultural market, cotton. The TartanSense business model is that a farmer will be able to order the robot's services through an app resembling Uber. 

Organic weed removal

The only thing better than using 90% fewer herbicides is not using herbicides at all. Thanks to the company FarmWise, farmers can label their produce as fully organic and earn twice as much. 

The robot, weighing more than 3.5 tons, carefully removes weeds without using any chemicals. It uses computer vision to perceive a wide range of information about each plant. Every day, one such robot manages to weed a crop that could feed a city of about 400,000 people. 

They are already used commercially and have become a real lifesaver for farmers, having removed weeds from millions of plants. 

Collecting stones from fields

The Washington startup TerraClear is developing a device that clears farmers' fields of stones. Machine learning and high-tech equipment are used to automatically remove stones from the field. 

Every spring, farmers prepare fields to grow corn, wheat and other crops. The first part of this preparatory work is plowing the field and exposing the soil to sunlight. The second part is removing stones that may surface due to low temperatures and soil cultivation. Stones can damage crops and equipment if they are not removed. 

TerraClear develops «automated agricultural equipment» for clearing fields of stones.

Robotic strawberry harvesting

If anyone thinks that robotic apple picking is the limit, they are deeply mistaken. Let's look at three companies developing agricultural robots for harvesting strawberries. 

1. Agrobot is a Spanish startup developing a fully automated strawberry harvester with 24 «arms» that operate independently of each other. The robot first uses machine learning to assess the ripeness of the berries. To protect the berries from falling or being squeezed, they are cut from the stems with two thin, sharp blades. The strawberries then drop into a small basket with rubber rollers, which places the fruit onto a conveyor belt leading to the packing area. One such robot can harvest 81,000 m² in three days. 
2. Advanced Farm Technologies (AFT) is a California startup developing a robotic strawberry harvester. The robot uses several manipulators with individual grippers to pick strawberries. California is the largest strawberry-growing state in the US, so the company has already deployed its robotic strawberry picker in several regions. 
3. Harvest CROO is a Florida startup creating a giant robot that harvests and packs strawberries. It uses computer vision algorithms to measure berry ripeness and can replace 25-30 workers in a three-day harvesting cycle on a field of 100,000 m².