Robots farm 200,000 strawberries per month in 500 kg revolving wheels
Blazing Reader,
A recent article in the New Atlas describes James Dyson's (yeah, the fan guy) robotic strawberry farm:
In the English county of Lincolnshire, a 26-acre glasshouse built by the Dyson company stretches across the land. Inside, giant wheels weighing about 500 kg (~1,100 lb) hold rows of strawberry plants that are slowly rotated to provide them optimal exposure to sunlight. UV-emitting robots rove the aisles exposing the plants to enough light to kill any mold that dares grow on the plant leaves, while a distributor bot releases beneficial bugs onto the plants in order to kill aphids and other destructive pests.
When the strawberries are ripe enough to be picked, the job is done by 16 robot arms that delicately pluck each fruit from the plant. According to James Dyson himself, the bots were able to harvest 200,000 strawberries in one month alone.
This reminded me of the many scenes in my novel, All the Humans Are Sleeping, which featured agribotics of various shapes and sizes:
[Rebecca] lifted herself on her tiptoes and stared over his shoulder at the fields below. "Have the bots finished?"
"Almost," replied Peter, turning around. "I have to hand it to those things — they are quick."
He pointed to the northeast corner. Freshly tilled dirt and compost covered the same area where wheat had stood tall less than two days earlier.
"A few more days," continued Peter, "and they'll be through with the wheat fields."
"Ma told me that you put off moving to agribotics until the farm was nearly broke. Said you thought they'd take over the world."
"Well, at least the farm," replied Peter, glancing at the cornfields, where over 200 Spiderbots were pulling weeds and zapping bugs. "Which they more or less have."
"No, they haven't." Rebecca laughed and raised her arms out to the side. "Dad, you're still commander-in-chief — the Lord of the Agribots."
Peter smirked. "At least that's what they want me to think."
He tipped his head towards the field of Spiderbots.
For a full sample of the first 24 chapters (in ebook or audiobook formats) head on over to AlltheHumansAreSleeping.com.
John C.A. Manley
PS Less creepy-crawly and more humourous is Farmbot himself, "the only robot on the farm with a humanoid appearance — a sort of middleman between the thousands of arachnid robots and their three human masters. Farmbot’s moulded plastic face was frozen in a half grin. It wore a red and black plaid shirt, blue overalls and a straw hat. The result looked like a hybrid of the Tin Man and the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz."
PPS Find out why Just Right Media calls All the Humans Are Sleeping "a masterpiece" at: AlltheHumansAreSleeping.com
John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.
