Rippa is designed to help farmers improve vegetable and fruit production.
Traditionally, farmers make decisions based on entire paddocks. If there is a pest problem with a few crops, they spray everything to make sure the problem doesn’t spread. Robotic technology can detect the precise location of the problem and spray only the affected crops. This means lower costs, lower environmental impact and a more abundant harvest.
ACR’s work has seen engineers collaborate with agronomists, farmers, business consultants and educators to create systems to help farmers around the world.
There is Swagbot, the world’s first personalized robot to work with grazing livestock, and Rippa, a robust robot that can roam fields and orchards, monitoring and caring for vegetables and fruits to improve yield production . Digital farmer is a smaller, cheaper robot that can be adapted for seeding, spraying and weeding, taking the guesswork out of critical agricultural decision-making. All are battery electric or solar.
Agricultural trials
Professor Sukkarieh and his team have tested the technology on farms in Australia and are also working with farmers in Indonesia, Samoa and Fiji.
“Farmers in developing countries face the same kinds of problems as Australian farmers,” says Professor Sukkarieh. “It’s worse because they don’t have access to the same agronomic advice.”
When robots enter any industry, there may be concerns about job losses for humans. But agriculture faces a crippling labor shortage. “This is an industry where robots are good news,” Professor Sukkarieh said. “They can help farmers reduce costs and make better decisions.
“Technology is not the end goal. The end goal is to understand what people need from technology. »