
These May Be The Droids Farmers Are Looking For - evo_9
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/11/mobile-farm-robots/
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tikhonj
There's something very refreshing to read about a startup that isn't in
software. Not to say there's anything wrong with software, but I--like a lot
of HN readers, especially in the Bay Area--tend to hear orders of magnitude
more news about web apps than robots.

The really exciting thing, of course, is that there are CS techniques and
ideas that can be applied to both: machine learning springs to mind
immediately. Robotics and web programming aren't entirely dissimilar which is
exciting--if I get bored of what I'm doing now, I could reasonably go into
robotics or several other seemingly unrelated fields.

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xxbondsxx
I 100% agree. We read about so many Crowd-Sourced-Cloud-Based Social Location-
aware ridiculous web apps that spring up every day that allow you to "throw a
sheep" at your friends that it's getting a little ridiculous. That's why
people keep shouting "bubble!!!" -- because we aren't really solving any true
problems.

If these droids were upgraded to water, move, feed, and monitor plant health,
it would be a huge revolution to the industry and actually _increase the
efficiency_ of a necessary industry.

It makes me a little sick to see Color getting 41 million, Shaker getting 15
million, and this great startup gets 5. Priorities people...

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unalone
The great thing, and also the terrible thing, about web apps is that they're
universal. Make an app somewhere and anybody with a computer can get at it,
usually without paying very much. It's a great opportunity for people to make
things. It's also a shame, because most web apps encourage people to spend
more time in front of a computer (instead of helping them take care of
business more quickly than they would otherwise, so they can close the
computer and get back to everything else), and because as wonderful as
computers are, they're limited in their impact on the physical world.

Further complicating the matter are advertisers, who are still desperately
seeking the next frontier once print and television ads die. Advertisers like
web apps, because web apps have lots of users, and that means lots of
potential targets. Robots? Not much advertising potential.

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breakyerself
This is a great step in the right direction, but I'm really hoping to read
more about robots that do things I care about. Like reduce the cost of food.
I'm not really in the market for ornamental shrubs right now. I'm really
getting impatient waiting for my humanoid butler to go on sale.

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zrail
I haven't ever worked in a nursery but it looks like they're just moving
plants around from one group to another five feet away. Is that the actual use
case, or will they be moving the plants longer distances?

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jefflab
Clearly people who work in nurseries do more than move plants back and forth 5
feet away, but this is an interesting step in the right direction. When I
worked in a nursery in high school I had 2 primary tasks a) keep the plants
watered b) help customers load their cars with big items. I've read about
projects that use water sensors to enable plants to request water individually
as they get dry. Adding a water tank and a sprayer to these little robots
might be an interesting addition if it isn't cost prohibitive. I look forward
to seeing more applications of technology in agriculture.

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RK
I can't wait to see produce that is organically farmed by robots.

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suivix
It'll be interesting if there will be a new super organic which means nothing
artificial involved.

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yuhong
Robots don't have the same fundamental problems as pesticides.

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lucasjung
That doesn't mean that marketing types won't try to convince people with more
money than sense that hand-harvested produce is somehow superior to robot-
harvested produce. Even if nobody believes that BS, some wealthy people will
pay more for something just because the knowledge that most people can't
afford it makes them feel more exclusive.

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plessthanpt05
that's really cool, and it's nice for manual labor to be aided by some
automated help, though dare to say, precursor to wall-e anyone?

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10dpd
Combine this with Farmeron and you have a winner.

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georgieporgie
I couldn't help but think of the first 'action' scene in this hilariously bad
Tom Selleck movie, which involves a runaway harvesting robot:
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088024/>

(That will only be of interest to HNers if you get a kick out of watching
wildly inaccurate futurist visions. And Gene Simmons.)

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js2
I think Silent Running is the more apt film choice here -
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Running>

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Blunt
funnier yet are the over weight people standing on the side watching.

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donald_draper
I bet building robots that appreciate and buy those plants will be the market
of the future.

