Democratising robotic farming

The roboticization of farming machinery is already happening, but we are at a decision point. Currently the most probable future just takes the person out of the tractor and does little or nothing for ecological sustainability or the improved livelihoods of small farmers. the cost of systems will be prohibitive for all but large farming concerns. The alternative future is based on low-cost, modular machines with open-source operating systems, along the lines of the Arduino/makerspace movement. Small, cheap agricultural machines have important advantages over the large robotic tractors currently being offered. For example, there is no need to uproot hedgerows to create large fields more suited to large machines, they lend themselves to small fields with several crops interleaved - with the accompanying ecological benefits. They are scalable: a farmer can start small with one or two machines and build up as their profits increase. With large numbers of small machines, all sensing various aspects of the soil, weather and crops, they provide a dense array of data for ground truth, to meld with satellite data and create a living farming laboratory - a system that learns how to optimise. These small machines will also help to sustain a healthy rural economy worldwide - the skills and equipment required to service and update the machines are relatively achievable for local technicians. This also addresses the North-South global divide, by allowing participation in the new technology for all. The project will initially look at how to create the best autonomous modular platform, using local fields as test sites. This will include ecological surveys and comparative work on different approaches.