Robots on the Farm and Implantable Tech

Posted on November 22, 2013 by | 5 Comments
This time, Cathi Bond talks about the Agrirover, a robot designed to run 24/7 on livestock paddocks, combing the field looking for spots where grazing grass is damaged by, erm, pee (via Scoop). A chat about robots down on the farm ensues. Meanwhile, Nora Young mentions that Motorola has a patent on an "electronic skin tattoo" (temporary!) to transmit voice and also to serve as a power supply (via PCPro, and others). The premise is that it would be a microphone and a power source. For me (Nora) it's interesting mostly as yet another example of how normal implantables and wearables are going to be in the next 5 years or so. In the near term, though, would you use something like this?
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5 responses to “Robots on the Farm and Implantable Tech”

  1. Scott Gillespie | November 26, 2013 at 2:42 pm |

    The first time I heard of robots in the field was 4 years ago when a company was talking about technology transfer from the military (Canadian). Its interesting to see some start showing up. For crops like potatoes it will be hard to make a ground based system but grass works well. I have a lot of interest in the quad copters & gopro cameras.

    Great show! Love hearing you guys!

  2. Nora | November 26, 2013 at 6:49 pm |

    Hi Scott,

    Thanks for the kind words. I'd love to find out more about the quad copters and what people use gopro cameras for. I mean, I'm assuming they mount them on the copters, but what do ag operations use the copters and cameras for?

  3. cathi bond | November 29, 2013 at 3:20 am |

    I was talking to a farmer next door to my place and he told me that a buddy of his had been jury rigging this kind of thing for the last little while. It's not there yet, but getting close. If you really want to sniff stuff out, there is always the web, but farmers and millwrights run a pretty close second. Speaking of millwrights, it's pretty hard to find any place cooler than a millwright with a home set up on the side. My cousin's husband has one of those and I've seen the most amazingly cool stuff in there. One of my fave places on earth. He built this hot tub in the dining room that rises out of the floor. You do have to move the table by hand though. And he completely rebuilt a 40s Ford pickup from the ground up that is a glory to behold. Thanks for checking in Scott AND the kind words. I love doing this podcast.

  4. Scott Gillespie | December 2, 2013 at 3:02 am |

    Sorry I thought I'd get an email notification when comments were posted. Here's a video that really openned my mind and made me realize the potential:

    http://youtu.be/2g-ZoWgZ6jM

    Just looking up the copter and the gopro this is doable for $2000 which is very affordable. It would take some practice to go as close to the crops as in here but the resolution would be enough to see if its worth walking out to check out. I have over 3500 acres to watch over each year and I think this has lots of potential. I can also see it as being a great way to look back on the year when planning over the winter.

    BTW I've been listening to you guys since DNTO days! Now its Sniffer and Spark that I keep up.

  5. Nora | December 2, 2013 at 2:25 pm |

    Wow, that video is so cool. I can certainly see the potential, especially if you have a big place.

    Also, since DNTO! Holy cow!

    Thanks for the heads up about email notification. I guess I assumed people were being notified. There isn't an obvious way to change that in the discussion settings (at least that I can see), but maybe there's a plug-in or something. I'll look into that.

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