New Autonomous Farm Wants To Produce Food Without Human Workers (technologyreview.com) 92
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Iron Ox isn't like most robotics companies. Instead of trying to flog you its technology, it wants to sell you food. As the firm's cofounder Brandon Alexander puts it: "We are a farm and will always be a farm." But it's no ordinary farm. For starters, the company's 15 human employees share their work space with robots who quietly go about the business of tending rows and rows of leafy greens. Today Iron Ox is opening its first production facility in San Carlos, near San Francisco. The 8,000-square-foot indoor hydroponic facility -- which is attached to the startup's offices -- will be producing leafy greens at a rate of roughly 26,000 heads a year. That's the production level of a typical outdoor farm that might be five times bigger. The opening is the next big step toward fulfilling the company's grand vision: a fully autonomous farm where software and robotics fill the place of human agricultural workers, which are currently in short supply. Iron Ox uses software, dubbed "The Brain," to watch over the farm and monitor nitrogen levels, temperature, and robot location. Alexander hopes to automative every process of the farm, but human workers are currently needed to help with seeding and processing the crops. He cites the shortage of agricultural workers and the distances that fresh product currently has to be shipped for reasons why we need automated farming.
"The problem with the indoor [farm] is the initial investment in the system," says Yiannis Ampatzidis, an assistant professor of agricultural engineering at the University of Florida. "You have to invest a lot up front. A lot of small growers can't do that." Currently, Iron Ox is sending the food it produces to a local food bank and to the company salad bar.
"The problem with the indoor [farm] is the initial investment in the system," says Yiannis Ampatzidis, an assistant professor of agricultural engineering at the University of Florida. "You have to invest a lot up front. A lot of small growers can't do that." Currently, Iron Ox is sending the food it produces to a local food bank and to the company salad bar.
LOL (Score:1)
These eggheads think they know everything. Oh look, a robot that will feed us! Give me my startup millions, now!
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When you go hungry, city boy, you will demand human farmers again. Or blame them that you YOU must resort to cannibalism. Bon apetit.
"permaculture yard not enough" @RestorationAgD http://bit.ly/1mjR6rt [bit.ly]
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" producing leafy greens at a rate of roughly 26,000 heads a year. That's the production level of a typical outdoor farm that might be five times bigger. " Your move, country retards.
liver vs broccoli vs apple http://bit.ly/1KspCuW [bit.ly]
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it's not true that there's nothing to see. local efficiency aside, it changes the economics of comparative advantage. that is, you might put up with trading with those barbarian savages for $foo over there because you're making so much more money producing $bar than $foo, that you don't produce $foo at all. however, if the startup cost of $foo is suddenly reduced by 4x (from 120 times to 30 times the cost of the barbarians' production), you might decide to take the economic hit for political advantage (star
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With 15 employees, admittedly huge startup costs and an output of 500 heads of leafy greens a week, ripping of investors seems like their business model of choice.
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huh (Score:3)
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huh-Farming in an Arcology. (Score:2)
Well it's indoors so that's a big bonus.* Weeds and insects easier to control. Vertical farming better use of land. This will also fit when we go into space, or underground. Also with developments like fogponics, and aquaponics, easier and more diverse foodstuffs. CRISPr makes things more interesting.
*Greenhouses, or cheap solar powering LEDs.
Re:huh (Score:5, Interesting)
I've always wondered if robots could patrol for weeds and bugs on a farm
There are a few small weed-bots for home gardens.
There are also a few commercial products for farms [ecorobotix.com].
There are many research projects at universities. I saw one in action at UC Davis last year. It seemed to work very well, and I have no idea why they aren't commercializing it.
Some of the weed-bots pull or zap the weeds. Others use piezoelectric sprays, like in your inkjet printer, to dispense small amounts to glyphosate directly onto the leaves of the weeds, getting none on the crop or ground, and reducing usage by 95%.
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There was an article on this site several years ago about a robot that hunted for and "ate" slugs. It had a bio-reactor that produced energy from the fermenting the slug bodies. Ok, found it - by "several years ago" I guess I mean 2 decades [slashdot.org], when did I get so old?
baby steps (Score:5, Insightful)
While this isn't going to replace industrial farming, it's a small step in the direction of autonomous crop management. However, what we should pushing to build robots to support outdoor horticulture farms. Monoculture is a weakness requiring heavy use of pesticides and herbicides which is harmful and unsustainable.
I for one would like to welcome our robotic farm overlords.
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If you remove the need for human labor you could theoretically operate as a sealed system and not require any pesticides or herbicides, since there would be no access path for weeds or bugs.
Sure but it's a tiny farm. Real farms that feed people are measured in square miles. The price of sealed farms would far exceed their value and that doesn't even include maintenance costs for the building/structure. It's not a realistic plan.
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Can we have a shed sized version of this? I mean, I know nothing about anything horticultural. I'm even having trouble getting some grass seed that says "guaranteed to grow" on the box to actually grow.
However, I'd love to have a little greenhouse/shed that did a bit of growing for me, which I only need visit every couple of weeks to pull out the ripened veg. What I'd pay for such a thing is another matter though - but as a geek, I'd quite like the challenge of building it and making it work.
Yet people will still claim automation is harmless (Score:1)
Yet people will still claim modern automation has no potential downfalls. What happens to a world when one of the most significant employers of unskilled human labor (the food industry) goes all automated? Will an increasingly automated skilled work force replace it? I seriously doubt it.
Now, I'm not arguing that we should forbid mass automation of unskilled labor because even if we don't allow it here some country with no regards to human rights (China maybe?) will happily allow it to our determent. What I
Re:Yet people will still claim automation is harml (Score:5, Insightful)
What happens to a world when one of the most significant employers of unskilled human labor (the food industry) goes all automated?
This has ALREADY HAPPENED in much of the world. 150 years ago, 70% of Americans worked on farms. Today 2% do. The world didn't end.
Will an increasingly automated skilled work force replace it? I seriously doubt it.
Why do you doubt it? It has ALREADY HAPPENED to over a billion people ... who have become the richest billion.
What I am saying is that we need a game plan for a very probable scenario.
You should start by reading a history book. For the last two centuries, moving a country's labor force off the farm and into the cities has be the key to prosperity, economic development, and higher living standards. It happened in the developed world long ago, and it is happening in China now.
Believing that agricultural automation somehow causes poverty, is astoundingly ignorant.
Re: Yet people will still claim automation is harm (Score:2)
Indeed. It probably began with Jethro Tull [slashdot.org].
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This is true, but look a where those people went: the people freed up from agricultural work found new jobs in factories, warehouses, offices and the like. Now, even those fields are being automated at a fast pace. You're correct when you say:
Re: Yet people will still claim automation is harm (Score:2)
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Without a well paid middle-class consumption will come down which will start hurting all companies: companies are able to prosper because of consumers with high amounts of disposable income, and since less and less people will be able to get money from their labor, economies globally will be facing large scale issues unless we put serious time and effort into solving the demand-side challenge created by increased and improved across the board automation.
I completely agree with your conclusion. What's more, even the top 1% need to have that consumption base, because they also want the things that the middle class wants. They want gas and roads and airports and movies and food and a financial system that benefits them.
Those things largely exist because of the consumption of the middle class. And yes, while you can hire people to create your own boutique versions of some of those, if the farmer in France can't afford to force-feed his ducks, you don't get pat
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Astounding ignorance is believing that such a major disruption in such a massive employer in the third world ( https://data.worldbank.org/ind... [worldbank.org] ) and yet one that needs to make truly massive efficiency gains to feed everyone ( https://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/1... [cnbc.com] ) will be compensated for by "progress".
Western agriculture is already massively automated and using up most of the available land it has for agriculture which means the real gains in food production will necessitate the sudden adoption of ultra mode
Re:Yet people will still claim automation is harml (Score:4, Funny)
What happens to a world when one of the most significant employers of unskilled human labor (the food industry) goes all automated?
Unskilled human labor will be used to produce Soyent Green.
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The illegal alien mexicans go home?
"short supply" of labor.. (Score:1)
you mean where there's plenty of people who want to work.. but employers are too cheap to increase wages and benefits to attract them? that "short supply"? there is no labor shortage.. call it a 'wage shortage'.. an 'insurance shortage'.. whatever... but there is definitely not a 'labor shortage'.. the world.. the u.s., even if you want to narrow it down to the country tfa is about, has not 'run out' of people to work. that's complete and total bullshit.
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you mean where there's plenty of people who want to work.. but employers are too cheap to increase wages and benefits to attract them?
Do you really believe that there is a vast pool of idle agricultural works sitting at home watching soap operas while they wait for wages to go up?
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If they're paying $100 per hour instead of $10, I'd grab a pitchfork myself.
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As would I. But then there's that sliding worth of the dollar: when a load of bread is $100 and a monthly apartment rent $7,000, no $100 per hour will save you. Same as with every currency crash, from Valenzuela to Prussia. And not even counting The Company Store scam. The minimum wage in 1970 America was what, $2 an hour? In 1900 $2 a month? The people who are trying to earn a living that won't kill them before the check arrives are not in control of the worth of the dollar.
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The potential agricultural workers are working in a different sector for better money, and won't consider an agricultural job because the pay is too low and work is too intense. The agricultural companies are wringing their hands saying "we can't find any Americans who want to do this work!!11one" because they want more visas and laxer immigration so they can hire cheap immigrants at wage-slavery pay levels. Agribusiness is competitive enough that those who raise wages to the point that actual American citi
Re: "short supply" of labor.. (Score:1)
But many wow-pkayers are farming, and earning lots of gold!
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And doesn't that make this exactly the sort of thing automation is for?
Better farms (Score:2)
Robots do not push up wages.
Advanced computer sorting of what is farmed.
Great new jobs looking after the robots.
Tesla wanted to produce an autonomous factory.... (Score:2)
Tesla wanted to produce an autonomous car factory.
How did that end up?
The abandonment of expensive robots and tents setup in the parking lot with a lot of humans busy building cars.
While I applaud the effort, don't oversell the abilities of autonomous anything.
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That says more about Tesla than automation. There are plenty of fully automated factories out there, if Modern Marvels episodes are to be believed.
more inputs (Score:1)
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"Flog" can mean "sell or offer for sale". It is an informal usage, and is more commonly used in Britain than in America.
A Good Path (Score:2)
What's the deal with leafy greens? (Score:2)
Why does every farming automation/urban/indoor/shipping container/etc./etc. project grow leafy greens?
Is there really a huge demand or profit in that?
How about:
- orange and purple cauliflower
- asparagus
- berries (out of season)
- morel mushrooms
- dragonfruit
- avocados
In other words, the expensive shit?
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Leafy greens are easy and fast to grow. Like 8x as many harvests a year fast and pretty easy to grow. Also, there's not a lot of lost biomass (e.g. with a tree for avocados or a bush for berries) that needs to be preserved year over year.
You start with easy and many iterations, and move to the hard stuff later.
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They are trivial. This is an indoor hydroponics conveyor. In skinny there are any actual robots involved (they themselves mention humans to plant and harvest).
It's just spin on yet another high intensity and expensive indoor grow operation. Yawn.
Call me when they can automated grow and pick strawberries, potatoes, and broccoli, all of which have much MUCH more involved processes.
I also suspect they plan to make money by selling the tech and VC.. not from the crop, and the capex payback period would be huge.
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Dragonfruit
One of the most disappointing things I've eaten. It looks so awesome... and is just sort of a slightly sweet taste. Kind of like a weak watermelon. I agree with the post, though. Definitely would look forward more to a variety of veggies and fruit than just leafy greens (that being said, anything making it easier to eat those daily is a good thing)
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Why does every farming automation/urban/indoor/shipping container/etc./etc. project grow leafy greens?
Is there really a huge demand or profit in that?
How about:
[...]
In other words, the expensive shit?
The preprocessed salad mix industry in America began in the eighties in Washington. A mix of some 30 different greens would go for twenty dollars a pound at the Pike Street Market. Tell us again how there's not a huge profit in that. Even just spinach at your local supermarket is up around eight bucks for a plastic tub, and spinach is relatively hardy and thus cheap to process.
Pound for pound, leafy greens are great earners. Possibly the best.
Backwards from wheat (Score:2)
Amazingly, they said seeding was a human intensive thing. When planting wheat, those John Deere planters use GPS and microchips to decide where precisely to put each seed (programmed taking into account changing soil type, etc.). While driving over a many acre farm.
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Keep in mind this is a startup, they probably haven't figured out how to do that yet, but will likely do so in the future. It's not like they can just take John Deere's tech and run with it.
Coal to Carrots (Score:2)
Indoor farming has to replace free and clean solar energy with grid energy ( ie. mostly coal ). Using solar power electricity in this instance would be very inefficient. Convert sun to electricity (loss), transmit over grid (loss), run grow lights (loss), is a horribly lossy system. Maybe 10% or less efficient system? So you replace 10 acres of lettuce farms with 2 acres of lettuce buildings. But you still need 10 acres worth of solar energy and you have to account for the loss. So you replace 10 acres of l
Can You Box That For Me? (Score:2)
Meat, and Fish, and Protein from the sea!
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It's all here, fresh as harvest day!
Didn't we learn from runaway (Score:1)
Runaway [wikipedia.org] starts out with the farm machines going crazy. They don't say whether those machines were manipulated by the terrorist or simply decided to go off on their own, but can we take a chance?
Yeah, I've been to Greygarden (Score:1)
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Plenty of competition (Score:1)
What's old is new again (Score:2)
In the 1940's, my grandfather had a device for his farm tractor that would allow him to plow one furrow around a field. The device then took over, guiding the tractor in tighter and tighter circles until the field was completely plowed. People would stop by the side of the road just to gawk. Somehow, it never really caught on! I wonder if these new-fangled robots will do any better.
"agricultural workers are in short supply" (Score:2)