Robotic Following Cart to Replace Light Duty Tractor Tasks?

[candersen10]

If you had a robotic cart like the one described, or perhaps larger (seems like many people, if they express interest, would like a larger one), what types of beds might you want on it? Ones to carry bins for vegetables, higher volume dumping beds for things like branches, are there any other things that people do where they are spending a lot of time gathering objects, placing them in containers, and carrying the containers by hand shorter distances? Trying to imagine applications to show in our demo video, which we are pulling together to get feedback from a broad audience.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Another application we are curious about (getting ready to do a more professional demo video shoot in a few weeks, albeit in PA in the spring and thus not with anything to harvest, and trying to show some potential uses).

Erect a Temporary Electric Fence - YouTube

Setting up electric fences (as shown in the video above, although the video shows a pretty short distance) seems like an application where you are running a bunch of small objects (connectors, insulators, wire, etc.) from point to point. I know a lot of guys use ATVs to do it, but then they are on the ATV, off the ATV, and back on to go a bit further. Could anyone envision a Burro robotic cart running ahead of an operator in that applicatoin pulling cables to run them out and also carrying hardware for stakes etc.

What we have could be a bit of a swiss army knife, hence the question.

Thanks!

Building fencing is something I know something about.

Temporary fencing is usually put out when the grass is growing. Usually that means I have to mow where the fence is going to go, and unless the terrain is really rough I like to use something I can drive. If I'm going to drive the line anyway I might as well take the fencing stuff with me. Temporary fencing doesn't need to be precise or pretty, the guy in the video seems to be doing OK just carrying everything and walking.

Where this might be interesting is with more permanent fence like woven wire. My toolkit for putting up woven wire is about 100 lbs, and there's an awful lot of walking back and forth. What I typically do now is park the tractor at one corner while I'm working a section, put all of the heavy tools in the front loader, and the light ones in a tool belt. But it means if I need a come-along or a drill I have to walk to where the tractor is and get it. It would be handy to have someplace where I could set a tool down, then walk ten feet and it would be right there for me to pick it up again.

It would also be handy to have something that could go get the 300lb rolls of wire, bring them to me, and hold them and roll them out.

But here's what would be really useful: if this thing can navigate, it has to know its location. If it could tell me where the fence line goes and where each post goes, that would really be something. The video shows the guy pacing off the end line before he starts putting up fence, you can waste a lot of time with that and still end up with poor results. It would be great to have a robot that you could tell, "run down to that tree and tell me how far it is from here." Oh, and while you're at it, tell me how many posts I need with 10' spacing and where they go. Now go get the posts and meet me at the spot of the first one.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

If you had a robotic cart like the one described, or perhaps larger (seems like many people, if they express interest, would like a larger one), what types of beds might you want on it? Ones to carry bins for vegetables, higher volume dumping beds for things like branches, are there any other things that people do where they are spending a lot of time gathering objects, placing them in containers, and carrying the containers by hand shorter distances? Trying to imagine applications to show in our demo video, which we are pulling together to get feedback from a broad audience.

I think you're on to something here. Separate the robotic navigation from the specific vehicle. Have different vehicles and programming for different tasks, all based upon a core set of navigational capabilities.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

You should check out the robots Amazon uses in its warehouses, it's conceptually identical to what you're talking about except it's indoors. An overview is here:
Amazon Robotics - Wikipedia

They use barcodes on the floor to navigate, something you couldn't do outdoors.

 

[candersen10]

You should check out the robots Amazon uses in its warehouses, it's conceptually identical to what you're talking about except it's indoors. An overview is here:
Amazon Robotics - Wikipedia

They use barcodes on the floor to navigate, something you couldn't do outdoors.

Yup, we have spoken to the founder of Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics) and are familiar with their work. We believe that their navigation methodology and the sophistication of the way their machines work is quite a bit outside of the realm of what farmers could pay and what the environment would allow however.

Here is the perfect use case for our idea we believe: About (scroll down and watch the video on that page).

Thoughts?

 

[Sysop]

Aethon makes this exact type of device for use in hospital and industrial environments. They call it a TUG.

Aethon: Autonomous Mobile Robots and Tracking Solutions

Not necessarily to follow a worker, but to autonomously deliver stuff between various points of a work area.

 

[daugen]

Sysop, good find. That touch screen interface looks to be as expensive as the OP's entire cart...I guess hospitals (still??) have big budgets for
automation. Reminds me of the use of modern big ag field mapping that goes into programmed rowcrop farming. Now the OP doesn't need his cart to open elevators ,but there might be other uses for wifi and bluetooth connectivity.

 

[candersen10]

Any thoughts on where we might go to find some early adopter farmers who might be willing to trial test prototypes and provide feedback? We are based near/in Lancaster/Chester county areas in PA so are near a lot of farmers. We have a 187 acre farm also for trials, but want external feedback. Where would you look?

Demo video of refined prototype coming soon...

 

[daugen]

Any thoughts on where we might go to find some early adopter farmers who might be willing to trial test prototypes and provide feedback? We are based near/in Lancaster/Chester county areas in PA so are near a lot of farmers. We have a 187 acre farm also for trials, but want external feedback. Where would you look?

Demo video of refined prototype coming soon...

Ironic that you are based where a rejection of modern technology has been a cornerstone of the Amish farmers.
So...maybe not locally....
for grape growing the new "wine country" of Virginia West of DC is at least an area where the property owners very likely have the money to spend early adopting some technology that interests them.
grower's associations, farmer's associations, what do you have near you?

 

[Sysop]

Sysop, good find. That touch screen interface looks to be as expensive as the OP's entire cart...I guess hospitals (still??) have big budgets for
automation. Reminds me of the use of modern big ag field mapping that goes into programmed rowcrop farming. Now the OP doesn't need his cart to open elevators ,but there might be other uses for wifi and bluetooth connectivity.

They found me, I service those machines.

Hospitals have unbelievable budgets, as do the companies that provide the technology to the hospitals. I just happened to read through the beginning of the thread, and found the concept interestingly similar, yet different. I think OP may be onto a useful idea once he gets some things worked out.