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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday April 19 2017, @11:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the where-is-the-jane-robot? dept.

When you've got a crop full of plants growing in a field, inspecting each and every one of them can be very monotonous work. That's why scientists are working on plant-inspecting robots, that perform the task autonomously. Most of those 'bots are wheeled, however, meaning that they could get stuck or fall over – plus they might get in the way of other machinery. With that in mind, scientists from Georgia Tech have created a prototype robot that swings over the plants like a monkey. It's called Tarzan.

The idea is that in fields where a Tarzan robot is being used, each row of plants will have a tightly-strung guy wire running overhead. Using its two "arms," the robot will swing itself along that wire, imaging the plants below with its built-in cameras as it does so. When it gets to the end of one row, it will just swing over to the wire running above the next row over, and start making its way back down it. That process will be repeated, until it covers the whole field.

It does sound like a better option than a wheeled robot--muck in the fields can get pretty deep.


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @12:50AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @12:50AM (#496623)

    I'm sure this makes good sense in a greenhouse, or in their "four-acre soybean test field", or other university type settings.

    In the real world, we don't want wheeled robots because "they might get in the way of other machinery", so we'll... string wires (not guy wires, BTW) over the field, with poles at regular intervals to hold them up!? (Yes, real fields are often far too big to cover in a single span.) At least you can program a wheeled robot to get out of the way when idle; you're gonna have to work around those poles whether "Tarzan" is busy or not.

    The comments about "muck", or how wheeled robots could "fall over" make no sense -- I don't know whether they're concerned about soil compaction, or getting stuck, but either way. There's no good reason for the wheeled equivalent of this thing to weigh more than a few pounds, no matter how fancy the camera. Put it on three wide bike tires, and the ground pressure is going to be at least as low as vehicles with tracks or flotation tires. Keep the wheels well spaced (straddle two or more rows, if that's needed) and it won't fall over.

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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday April 20 2017, @11:52AM (1 child)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday April 20 2017, @11:52AM (#496804) Journal

    The comments about "muck", or how wheeled robots could "fall over" make no sense -- I don't know whether they're concerned about soil compaction, or getting stuck, but either way. There's no good reason for the wheeled equivalent of this thing to weigh more than a few pounds, no matter how fancy the camera. Put it on three wide bike tires, and the ground pressure is going to be at least as low as vehicles with tracks or flotation tires. Keep the wheels well spaced (straddle two or more rows, if that's needed) and it won't fall over.

    Have you never walked in fields of dew-covered wheat or tall corn and sunk in up to your hip?

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @06:07PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @06:07PM (#496973)

      Nope, I'm afraid I live in the wrong part of the country for rice, wheat, and corn paddies.