Robots in the Field: Farms Turning to Autonomous Technology

 

Farmer Jamie Butler is testing a new worker on his farm in England’s Hampshire countryside. Butler hopes the new worker will help the 180-hectare farm produce more wheat and not harm the environment.

The laborer² does not say a thing while inspecting Butler’s winter wheat crop for other plants and insects. Why all the silence? Because it is a four-wheeled robot named “Tom.” It uses signals from satellites orbiting the Earth, artificial intelligence and communications technology to map the field.

Tom’s creator is the Small Robot Company of Portsmouth, England. It is one of several start-up businesses working to change the way crops are produced.

Farmers are facing economic pressures because of the need to keep down food prices, a rising world population and climate change. Most robots are still being tested, but they show ways that automated⁴ machines can move from manufacturing businesses to farm communities.

Holding costs down “by being on the leading edge of technologies as one method of doing that, then that’s a really, really good thing,” said Jamie Butler. He is one of 20 British farmers taking part in a yearlong experiment.

Next year, the British company plans to start testing two more robots controlled by an artificial intelligence system that will work alongside Tom. It will be doing “seeding, feeding and weeding” without human involvement.

The aim is to cut down on fertilizer and pesticide⁵ used to lower costs and increase profits for struggling farmers. This not only helps them economically, but it also lowers the effects of farming on the environment.

“What we’re doing is stuff that people can’t do,” said Ben Scott-Robinson, who helped to set up the Small Robot Company. He noted⁶ that his company’s robot can inspect each plant and treat its condition as needed, something a farmer cannot do.

Sales of the autonomous⁷ robot system are still years away, with more testing planned for 2021. The tests represent the next step in the growth of automation for farms. Self-driving farm equipment and robotic milking machines have been in use for years. Recently, unmanned drone aircraft began watching crops from the sky.

Soon, farms “will be able to automate³…everything,” said Tim Chambers⁸, a fruit farmer who is not involved in the tests. Some jobs are harder to automate, such as collecting fruit by hand, but even that is coming, said Chambers, a member of Britain’s National Farmers Union.

The United States, Spain, Britain and Belgium all have companies that are developing robots for harvesting fruits such as strawberries, but there are problems.

The main issue “will be the cost of building those robots and the research that has to go into making them,” Chambers said. The low cost of air shipping⁹ could still make it less costly¹⁰ to fly in fruit from other countries, where labor¹ is also less costly, he said.

To ease financial pressure on farmers who are afraid to make a big investment in equipment, the Small Robot Company plans to sell its services at a monthly cost, charging about $765 per hectare a year.

On Butler’s farm, Tom takes hundreds of thousands of pictures of crops during the growing season. The images are fed to Wilma, the artificial intelligence platform, which is being trained to tell the difference between wheat and weeds.

In 2019, the company will start trials for two more robots, Dick and Harry¹¹. Dick will provide fertilizer directly to plants. Harry will put seeds into the earth, and there will be no need for tractors.

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

artificial intelligence - n. an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence

automate - v. to run or operate something, such as a factory or system by using machines, computers, etc., instead of people to do the work

weed - n. a plant that grows very quickly where it is not wanted and covers or kills more desirable plants

pesticide - n. a chemical that is used to kill animals or insects that damage plants or crops

tractor - n. a large vehicle that has two large back wheels and two smaller front wheels and that is used to pull farm equipment

drone - n. a type of small aircraft that flies without a pilot

platform - n. a program or set of programs that controls the way a computer works and runs other programs

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 laborer   

n.劳动者，劳工

参考例句：

• Her husband had been a farm laborer.她丈夫以前是个农场雇工。
• He worked as a casual laborer and did not earn much.他当临时工，没有赚多少钱。

3 automate   

v.自动化；使自动化

参考例句：

• Many banks have begun to automate.许多银行已开始采用自动化技术。
• To automate the control process of the lathes has become very easy today.使机床的控制过程自动化现已变得很容易了。

4 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

5 pesticide   

n.杀虫剂，农药

参考例句：

• The pesticide was spread over the vegetable plot.菜田里撒上了农药。
• This pesticide is diluted with water and applied directly to the fields.这种杀虫剂用水稀释后直接施用在田里。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

8 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

9 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

10 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

11 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。