‘Swarm Robotics – the agri-work- force of the future?’ on 25 April. “Robot swarms will enable tru- ly precise agriculture – targeted spraying of individual plants, and selective harvesting of crops that are actually ripe – rather than treating an entire fi eld uniformly,” says Alan Millard (pictured left), one of the speakers at the Agri- Tech East event.
Obstacle avoidance Other speakers include Sam Wat- son Jones, co-founder of the Small Robot Company, pioneer of ‘robots as a service’; and safety specialist Mark Nicholson, who warns that the regulatory framework must improve to support farmers. Plymouth University robotics
expert Alan Millard, who is inves- tigating ways of autonomously harvesting caulifl owers in collab- oration with local food producers, says robots are moving out of the lab and into the fi eld. “Lab-based swarm robots typ- ically feature sensors for obstacle avoidance, a pair of wheels for sim- ple locomotion, the ability to com-
Mr Millard is also interested in robot swarms for soil and plant health monitoring, the use of im- age processing and the acous- tic detection of pests. “They can also monitor each other’s behav- iour and repair team-mates when faults occur, thus removing the need for human intervention.” But a cautious approach is
The Small Robot Company hopes to revolutionise UK agriculture
municate with other robots – such as via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth – and sometimes a gripper for manipu- lating objects in the environment,” he explains. “The Small Robot Compa- ny and Earth Rover are compa- nies with the closest examples of swarm-sized agri-food robots in the UK. The Thorvald robot is also a promising robot platform, which offers great potential for use
in swarm robotic systems due to its size and fl exibility.”
Powerful technology In an agricultural context, robot swarms can be applied to tasks such as soil and plant health mon- itoring, weeding, drilling, and har- vesting. Because they can work in parallel, they have particular ben- efi ts for large areas or for meeting tight deadlines.
urged by David Rose, of the Uni- versity of East Anglia. Consid- eration should be given to three questions before starting on an in- novation pathway: Who benefi ts? Who loses? Who decides? “All too often, decisions are made by powerful technology companies without the inclusion of user voices,” he says. “Robotics might promise increased yields and profi tability but there may be negative consequences that might mean we shouldn’t go down that route.” The Agri-Tech East event ‘Swarm Robotics – the agri-workforce of the future?’ is being held on 25 April 2019 at Future Business Cen- tre, Cambridge, CB4 2HY. See
www.agritech-east.co.uk/events
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