Technology
AI Agricultural Robots Promise to Reduce Pesticides in Food
AI Agricultural Robots
Artificial intelligence is quickly learning to grow a green thumb for farming technology. A team of researchers at Mendel University in the Czech Republic is developing agricultural robots that target and kill harmful insects. The new technology of AI farming aims to greatly reduce the amount of pesticides needed for sustainable agriculture.
At the University of Mendel, a team was tasked with building a farming robot capable of identifying and eliminating these tiny interlopers. Plants are grown in a greenhouse at the university where the temperature and humidity optimal for their growth also attract a number of different insects that the robots begin learning how to identify and eliminate.
Initially, it took a lot of work to build a brain capable of teaching itself. The research team had to first “manually find the individual insects” before they could categorize them and organize them into a database. The AI then began using this database as a basis for learning.
This is done using a progressive algorithm. The AI robot effectively learns by finding “structure and regularities” in the new data it retrieves every time it goes into the field. The robot is currently capable of identifying three unique species of insect and will presumably be able to teach itself about many more species in the future.
The AI robot itself resembles a meter-long wheelchair with an arm and a camera. It uses the camera to see the pests and the arm to administer the pesticides only in the place where they need to be. The algorithm tells the robot “what kind of pest it is” and “how intensely it is present on a given plant.”
Traditional methods of administering pesticides include spraying entire crops just to be sure pests are eliminated. However, these AI agricultural robots determine the size of the infestation and apply only an “appropriate amount” of pesticides. Olga Krystofova, one of the biochemists on the team, says the robot also runs “24 hours a day” and can identify an “infection much earlier than humans.”
These farming robots are nothing short of revolutionary. Fewer pesticides on our plants ultimately mean fewer carcinogenic chemicals in our bodies, especially from the food we eat, which the World Health Organization has deemed toxic to humans.
Although the robot in operation is only a prototype, the team is optimistic. They are working passionately to have a commercially viable product in just a few years.
IC Inspiration
These intelligent farming robots will do more than make us healthier; they will also provide a potential solution to the alarming suicide rate among farmers.
The inordinate amount of suicide among farmers is primarily due to just one thing: money.
As more farmland continues to be subsidized by the federal government, farming itself is becoming a less viable occupation. The emotional toll this takes is devasting… It’s a terrible thing to feel ineffectual.
This could all change if farmers are needed to manage these agricultural robots. Fortunately, the research team at Mendel plans to make their technology commercially available to farmers. There will suddenly be a huge demand to regulate and maintain these machines once they hit the market.
The satellite system these robots use to navigate also acts as a communications system. When a robot detects an infestation, it won’t try to eliminate it alone. It’s designed to contact farmers in the area who can help, which will only make their jobs that much more necessary.
There are even more reasons to feel optimistic about the future of our society when we consider how the robots themselves can be recycled. The European Space Agency is currently experimenting with a technique known as “discrete burning” to turn metals like iron into environmentally friendly fuel. If the commercial models of these robots are built of iron, we could be looking at an inspirational future where nothing is truly wasted.