This new robot prototype should accelerate the production of ideal plants by walking through unlimited acres, looking at every plant.
(Crop phenotyping robot)
It's equipped with sensors including hyperspectral, high-definition and thermal cameras, along with weather monitors and pulsed laser scanners. These allow it to collect phenotypic data such as stem diameter, plant height and leaf area, along with information on environmental conditions like temperature and moisture content of the soil.
That data is stored on the robot's own integrated computer, plus it's transmitted to the user's laptop. They can then use the information to create a 3D computer model of each plant, to create predictive models of its growth and development, and to estimate the biomass yield both for that individual plant and for the whole crop.
So far the robot has only been tested on energy sorghum, which is grown as a source of biofuel. It is believed, however, that it should perform just as well with other tall-growing crops such as corn or wheat.
Science fiction films buffs will recall the 1972 sf movie Silent Running, in which Bruce Dern took care of his garden with the help of similar-looking robots. But only on a space craft, not on a county.
These endless fields of castor bean plants had to be cultivated, but with the great machines that did the work it required but a few dozen men to cultivate an entire county.
Mika The Robot-Boss
'the robot-boss was busy at the lip of the new lode instructing and egging the men on to greater speed...' - David C. Cooke, 1939.
Sensitive, Soft Robot Skin
'...tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.' - Harl Vincent, 1934.
Finger Sensors For Robot Hands
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
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