Do the androids dream of electricians? Australia's agricultural robots replace human workers on farms



    Robotization penetrates all spheres of our life. First of all it concerns the industry, agriculture, astronautics. As for agriculture, the robots already know how to check the condition of the gardens and even harvest. Now the robots have learned how to graze cattle and report problems with individual animals to the farmer.

    Such systems are in great demand in Australia, where many farms are hundreds of kilometers away from any civilized center. As a result, there are not enough workers there, because in order to get to the farm, you need 13 hours or more. Not every worker will agree to get into such a wilderness. Of course, if this worker is not made of metal and plastic.

    There is no one to look at the livestock on such farms - and the animals often die for unexplained reasons. Sometimes the cause is chupa-cabra disease, sometimes injuries. But to do all this just no one. And then robots come to the rescue .



    Scientists and engineers of Australia took up the creation of systems that can graze cattle, monitor the state of pastures (check whether there is enough grass, and how good it is, green and tasty), do other work. If the animal is injured and cannot walk, the robot records the incident with sensors and transmits the data to the farmer.

    As for grass, to monitor its quality, robots are equipped with sensors that determine the color of plants, the size of leaves and the general condition of pastures. Interestingly, the name has not yet come up with a cowboy robot. But this is the second version of the system. The first, which was called Shrimp, was designed to care for herds sized 20-150 heads.

    Now robots are on probation in their new job. And their creators in the field "bring" software and hardware. Robots must observe cattle anytime, anywhere, whether in wetlands, plains or hills. Trials are now being conducted in the state of New South Wales.

    Scientists say they started developing robotic cowboys because there are simply no human workers, as mentioned above. “Farmers who agreed to test our systems are experiencing a constant shortage of labor, and therefore they began to seek technology support,” said the author of the project Salah Sukkarieh, a representative of the University of Sydney.

    Scientists have already created several models of agricultural robots. One of these models, Ladybird, is used to kill weeds in the garden beds. As soon as the robot detects a weed, the plant is sprayed with a herbicide, the smallest possible quantity, which allows us to better eliminate weeds with less consumption of pesticide. Spot wrestling is much more effective than general spraying of fields with herbicides.


    Weeds will not be able to hide from the vigilant sensors Ladybird

    Another development is unique at all - a specialized robot rolls around the apple orchard, and counts all the apples to the last, giving the farmer an idea of ​​the size of the future harvest. In addition, the farmer, knowing where the apples are least of all, understands that this particular part of the garden requires maximum care (watering, spraying the trees with insecticide, etc.).

    If the tests of robots are successful, and the price is acceptable, then Australian farms may become the most technologically advanced farms in the world in the near future.

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