Posted on 07/10/2015 7:49:14 AM PDT by Red Badger
Dr Christopher Lehnert talked about the potential robots held for the agriculture industry at CQ University yesterday.
A STEREOTYPICAL farmer might wear overalls and gumboots in 2015.
But in not long at all, he could be a state-of-the-art robot.
Agricultural robotics research fellow Dr Christopher Lehnert spoke at CQUniversity yesterday about robots being developed to pick fruit and detect weeds.
One problem they could solve was harvesting labour shortages.
"It's a causal workforce problem. (For farmers) their really high risk is getting a workforce to pick the fruit," Mr Lehnert said.
"There's not a worry about job losses. We're just shifting the paradigm. Instead of being in the field, they will control robots."
He hoped to be well on the way towards a commercial fruit-picking design by the end of next year.
Another part of his research was designing robots for broadacre weed management.
"We are looking at taking the human out of the tractor and getting an autonomous platform," he said.
"The large machines they use on farms do a lot of damage to the soil. They compact the soils and destroy them.
"But robots would be smaller, they wouldn't cause this issue."
Problems with herbicide resistance are costing farms millions, but Dr Lehnert said robots could help solve this problem.
"You normally have to do a 'double knock' or multiple applications of herbicide.
"As the robot has a vision system on board it can detect the weed and apply herbicide or alternative mechanical methods to kill the weeds individually.
"Instead of blanket spraying the farm, you reduce your costs in herbicide use.
"This is close to commercial application."
I agree with RedBadger, about not wanting to provoke an argument.
You obviously have deep experience, and the rest of us could benefit from that. We are excitably forecasting out the technology. We are fans.
The truth is that these are really hard problems. When we develop the technological capability to do them well though, it is going to be a huge change.
Thank you. I'm actually working to lead that change, to develop a 21st Century pastoral nomadic cohort to manage land in remote locations as an industry. I was in product development for years; I do know how hard this is. I have a VERY long list of equipment and technology ideas in that direction that won't be at all easy, particularly in the area of portable laboratory equipment for microbiological asssessment. But replacing labor with printed capital accruing only to the guys with the press then to have labor take its revenge is a very poor idea.
You're raising cattle or buffalo?.................
Frankly, our farmers are way behind in automated picking.
On one hand, the technology can enable large scale agribusinesses to replace labor with capital.
On the other hand, the technology can also empower small business and individuals to produce more.
In the long run, no monopoly can continue without the support of the force of Government. If Government is an honest broker in the marketplace, nimble small companies frequently overturn the advantages of big ones. It is more of a problem with politics than technology.
Even when companies suddenly shoot to dominance for a while, it is on the basis of providing people compelling new value.
On another point, I traveled to Mongolia once. Talk about remote locations with pastoral nomads, and it is hard to top Mongolia. The cultural ethos is built around it as well.
Even though the economic development has been focused on a mining boom, they may suffer the same fate as Australia and Brazil, as demand for raw materials by China drops.
Even if they are rich with mining revenue, they have very close affinity for a pastoral nomadic life. It is common to have country cousins living in gers (yurts), and even for city dwellers to retire out to a Ger, or to Summer in one. Their culture (the steppe culture of Central Asia) is arguably the World-class historical model.
They are starting to get interested in farming in addition to herding, and they have the 19th biggest country on Earth with only 3 million people, so there is huge potential (even if the Winters are brutal).
“Frankly, our farmers are way behind in automated picking.”
I have heard that the Europeans use machines a lot more, because they don’t have all the cheap (even subsidized) immigrant labor that we have.
Robots: Doing the jobs illegal aliens won’t do.
“Thanks Sergeant Major, I’ll check it out.
Doh, I better clarify. CSM is my initials, I took the lazy way out when deciding on an FR nickname. Sadly, I never made it past Specialist.
It’s true.
It depends upon who has the cash and who controls the rules of competition. Advantage: fascism.
In the long run, no monopoly can continue without the support of the force of Government.
I would call it structural oligopoly.
If Government is an honest broker in the marketplace, nimble small companies frequently overturn the advantages of big ones. It is more of a problem with politics than technology.
Looks to me like what we have is policy for sale to the highest bidder.
Even when companies suddenly shoot to dominance for a while, it is on the basis of providing people compelling new value.
They don't do that without owing the folks who put in the seed money. Look at Gates, Zuckerberg, or Sergey Brin.
As to Mongolia, those tribs do survive intact, and have for longer than any "civilized" nation on earth (who managed to kill 100 million people in the last century). As do the Bedouin, the Magyars, the Ma'asai, the Ju-Hoansi, the Inuit... There's a lesson there someplace.
Now, obviously I'm not advocating that we live like they do, but we should know how, lest we starve in our urban prisons when somebody thinks to cut the power. The whole idea of the Torah was to preclude such. To me, liberty and security starts with maintaining a surrounding landscape capable of sustaining the people in time of emergency. That goes to soils, hydrology, and vegetation management that would be the actuarially priced products and services mitigating risks associated with urban development. I hold a patent for that business method that I filed in 1998 years ahead of Bartels carbon scam.
Really, I'm at least a decade ahead of this curve.
“Where did you score one of those? I could really use one and would definitely check it out....”
All over the internet. John Deere even has one.
Just type in “robot lawn mower.”
OK, now I just feel ignorant. If I had spent a moment to exercise my brain, I would have thought of that....
So, I did a quick look and it appears that the main market for the technology is in EU. John Deer is working on perfecting it in the EU market and will hopefully release it in the US soon. I’ll start keeping my eye on the market.
Are you in EU or the US? If the US, can you be more specific about which type you have?
Here:
I have two of the second-best model, one for my house in the USA and one in Israel. (I travel A LOT and didn’t want my house to look unoccupied was the actual motivating factor. That, and one of my two days off is Shabbos.)
that is great, thank you for the link.
Don't forget pesticide use. A solar collector mirror well aimed by a robot could vaporize insects without chemicals.
lasers!........................
Robots will work for less, do jobs no illegal immigrant will do. Will not join la Raza.
Whatever the development costs are for this technology are worth the cost. Now send the ones that eat and sleep and suck off the government teet home.
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