Crop-inspecting robots

Robots to transform agriculture - 26th October 2020

Prototype agricultural robots capable of analysing crops on an individual basis have been unveiled by tech giant Alphabet, the owner of Google, to support farmers in cultivating plants more effectively.

These automated machines are able to gather huge amounts of information about each plant in a field while gliding over them on wheeled pillars, ensuring none of the produce is damaged.

The robots have been designed by X, Alphabet's semi-secret research and development arm. They form an integral part of X's Project Mineral, an initiative to assist farmers in meeting the world's ever-increasing demand for produce whilst simultaneously maintaining sustainability in agriculture.

Project Mineral head Elliot Grant provided details of the automatons in a blogpost, saying better tools will enable the agriculture industry to transform the way food is grown. "What if every single plant could be monitored and given exactly the nutrition it needed"

The robots have been designed to record how plants are "actually growing and responding to their environment". It's hoped that they could greatly expand the amount of data at the disposal of agricultural workers, which currently is limited to information relating to weather and soil content.

The robots can be produced in a variety of sizes to match the type of crop they will be observing. They will be able to garner a wide range of details regarding plant height, leaf area and fruit size.

As these robots are rolled out all over the world, Alphabet will need to consider the issue of data security. The questions of who will own the crop data and how it will be used remain unanswered. Breeders and farmers in Argentina, Canada, South Africa and the US are already conducting trials with the robots, and Alphabet is keen to expand its collaborations to organisations globally.