Can a robot farm operate with human workers?

Oct 8, 2018News

An emerging autonomous farm with robots tends rows of leafy green under the control of a software named “The Brain”.

Recently, Iron Ox is opening its production line in San Francisco. The production line is set up in an 8,000-square foot hydroponic facility with the productivity of 26,000 heads of leafy greens a year. It hopes to run without human labor but filled with robotic arms and movers.

Iron Ox developed a software called “The Brain” to get machines collaborate; it watches over the farm, monitoring its condition and orchestrates robot and human when needed.

However, the human presence is still required for certain steps such as seeding and processing of crops, but Brandon Alexander, the firm’s co-founder, looks forward to automating these steps. The company is doing this in order to fill in the shortage of agricultural labor since farming industry has been witnessing a shortage of human resource.

The automation of agricultural processes will also require some monitoring regulations; the ethical framework for AI is something that MDI’s experts are actively researching and exploring.