Crop-inspecting robots

Alphabet develops farming robots - 26th October 2020

Alphabet, Google's parent company, has revealed prototype robots which will be able to inspect individual plants in a field, helping farmers improve their crops.

The robots coast over crops on tall columns, ensuring the plants remain undamaged. The goal of these machines is to collect large quantities of information on crop growth.

The robots are part of Project Mineral, run by X, Alphabet's research and development organisation. X aims to create world-changing technology using radical ideas. The team say Project Mineral's main goal is to address the world's increasing need for food and the sustainability of growing it.

Elliot Grant, Project Mineral's team leader, wrote in a blogpost that he hopes tools such as these will transform the agriculture industry. "What if every single plant could be monitored and given exactly the nutrition it needed"

Farmers have typically been able to gather limited information about their crops, such as the content of the soil they’re grown in. Grant hopes that these new robots will be able to provide much greater detail on how crops "are actually growing and responding to the environment".

Different sized robots oversee different crops and planting patterns. They allow farmers to record a wealth of data including plant height, leaf area and fruit size.

One issue to consider is data security. Who will own the data collected, and will governments be able to control how it is used? Project Mineral is already trialing the robots with breeders and farmers in Argentina, Canada, South Africa and the US, and hopes to expand its operations to more countries around the world.