Farm Bot - CNC agriculture...

https://farmbot.io/

Not to mention his plants are all shot through with holes!

I wonder what the efficiency of these systems is, no doubt scaling up always helps

Looks like 1000w of effort to make 50w of lettuce at the hobby level

It could be scaled up if instead of the works running on rails they sat on wheels and hauled themselves along on fixed wire ropes. That would leave the problem of supporting the wires and pipes.

I have dairy farmers as relatives and used to help them with the hay bales but this was discontinued twenty years ago. They went to "big" bales (The round ones you see wrapped in plastic in fields.

Its the silage that I am interested in, the grass is cut and chopped in a machine behind a tractor then blown into a trailer also pulled by a tractor. Depending on the distance to the silage clamp, another tractor and trailer would be in use, traveling back empty to the field so the tractor doing the cutting and blowing does not have to stop.

In a good season a farmer might get two cuts of his grass but it is normally one. Other things to remember, is that the weight of the tractor causes soil compaction and a loss of fertility and the shorter the grass the slower its rate of growth.

So I was cogitating on putting stakes say 2m apart withe a chain between them right across the two ends of a field. Then have a light weight machine that start of at the first stake and pulls it self along a cable going across the field cutting the grass as it goes and loading it into a box or bag. which it drops at the end of the field. It then unhooks the wire rope travels side ways along the chain, reattaches the rope and makes it way back, cutting as it goes. When it gets to the end , it again travels sideways reattaching the rope then forward cutting as it goes. If its set to work every three days then there would be no reason the chop the grass and the growing grass blade would be at a better length for growing. So every morning the farmer would remove a few cubic metres of sileage, move the machine into a different field and refuel the machine then go back home for breakfast. Being a robot, it could work through the night.

Frank

Hi Frank

You can delete the ropes ropes just map the field into a GPS with an arduino interface. They even have them built into small consumer drones these days. There is heaps on the net about mapping. Maybe you could link up with a local tech school if the electronics is a bit hard. The actual electronic component cost would be minimal. For steering you could use steppers and a gearbox. Maybe the device could use a solar panel to charge it up.

The light weight is a great idea A trim rather than a haircut.

Regards
John

Edited By John McNamara on 13/07/2016 07:51:03

I think the effort is to be applauded on the development of the technology as such and disregard how practical it looks for now, i mean you can't beat the cost of a trowel and a watering can, and will always be easier. It was only going to be so long before someone applied cnc to farming. The sprayers and combines can already be programmed to follow a guidance system but only where the land is flat enough to permit it, it cant be done in UK where plots are small and spaced out.

I would've thought the scale up would be where the reward is but also where the challenge is, can you imagine trying to scale up that gantry head, inevitably as things get bigger, things that were rather small problems become much more important what it hasn't accounted for are cross winds, changes in weather, all of the things an experienced farmer would keep an eye on to make sure hes getting the most out of his crop.

Day or night working isn't where the issues are perse, the farmers i know will do what they have to do to get the work done, when it can be done,(even if it means staying up late to get that field done) nature can't always be hurried.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 13/07/2016 09:59:10

Frank, what about a couple of traction engines - rope between the two of them and then pull the device over ?
BobH

My thought exactly

I think there is already a commercial product designed for cropping grass on demand, low environmental impact on soil, self propelled, comes in several sizes with catchy marketing designations like 'cow', 'sheep', 'goat'. Produced originally by the GOD corporation but patent expired and some modified versions have been produced.

Full size https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGG8U_-Hzhs

Now get on with it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vWI-XdfmwE

Youngest offspring drives a Joan Dear that is computer controlled to follow best paths for efficient coverage via sattelite and varies machine outputs based on soil type and previous crop yields. When working his new tattie lifter (trans. Potato harvester) he got a call on his mobile phfone form the machine manufacturer to say he should increase his speed by 2 kph to get the best result.

And when I went to help one weekend the farmer apologised becauseI was given the oldest tractor cos it was the only one with a clutch and gearstick, funnily enough I was quite happy.

The traction engines are good , thats why I thought pull ropes. if you have a self hauled machine (AKA tractor) it has to be heavy to get enough traction. Not a problem with rope pull drive. Basically an overgrown rotary lawn mower, with some bolt ons, not a £60k tractor. GPS could do the steering but not the traction.

Yes those mammalian based machines are inoperative during the winter, they are unable to self source their source of fuel - GrAss. This has to be provided by a higher order mammal.

Frank