You’ve seen the videos. Easy riding, go-less tractors in the fields. However, when I told you it is not the machine? That is the water it gathers that is invisible. We are living in the age of information where the most treasured crop is not corn or soybean.
This transformation transforms all things. Farming is a business that is being radically transformed using technology. Let’s dig into it.
Out of Steel to Silicon: The New Farmhand
The contemporary agricultural robots are not all brute force. They are mobile data centers. They observe what the human eye fails to see.
Consider the FarmWise Titan. This weeding robot has AI-controlled cameras that detect each and every plant. It doesn’t just chop weeds. It develops a living map of the whole field. This is accuracy on plant-by-plant basis.
One expert puts it perfectly:
It is not the sale of iron we are doing. The robot is merely the delivery system to have a further insight into the land. – one of the insiders within the industry in a big agri-tech event.
This alters the proposition of value altogether. It is physical work that is practically a bonus.
What Data Do we actually mean?
The volume is staggering. One robot has the ability to create terabytes of information in a season. Now what does that appear to be on the ground?
It’s not just about location. It is concerning the health of plants, the soil structure and the pressure of pests. This information develops a hyper-sensitive digital replica of the farm.
Key data points collected:
- The amount of chlorophyll of each leaf.
- Deficiency of micronutrients in the soil.
- Pest detection at the initial stage.
This means that the intervention that would have been the domain of fantasy ten years ago is possible.
The existing Business Model: Soil Subscriptions
How does this make money? It is moving away to recurring relationship as opposed to a one-time sale. The so-called Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) is taking off.
The hardware is commonly not purchased by farmers but rather the service. They are betting on a later harvest of better harvests. John Deere Operations Center could be seen as one of the examples. They have AIs and Robotics platforms that process equipment data. Thereafter, they give prescriptive planting maps.
This is a fundamental shift. The revenue does not only include the initial machinery, but the on-going data analysis.
The Story of a California Vineyard
Let’s make this real. One of the Napa Valley vineyards was having an issue. Their grapes were at risk of a fungal illness. A classical scouting overlooked the initial indications.
They used a squadron of aerial drones and land robots. The AI system observed the slightest change in the leaf reflectance. This was an indication of the fungus a few days before.
The vintner was also only attacking the vines that were already affected. They spared their crop 95 percent of possible contamination. They also decreased by 70 percent the application of fungicides. This is the strength behind targeted data.
The Data Dilemma: a warning by an Expert.
This isn’t all good news. We must consider the risks. I have recently interviewed a data ethicist specializing in the field of Agriculture.
She gave a bleak vision:
The farmer should have ownership of his/her data. We must not have a new digital serfdom in which they rent out the knowledge of their own land.
This is the central tension. Who truly owns the data? Who will cash in on it in the long run? These are questions that are not answered so much.
Beyond the Field: A Large-scale AI Revolution
The tendency is not limited to the sphere of agriculture. The same can be said about other Robotics industries. Value is shifting to the software of the intelligence collected.
Consider warehouse robots. They monitor real-time inventory. Their statistics streamline supply chains. This is also the way even the development of the Humanoid Robot moves.
What are the benefits of Humanoid Robot? Its possibility is in human space navigation. It will collect exclusive information regarding our houses and work places. It gets in the door through hardware. Its collected data is where the bills are paid.
This constitutes the novel paradigm of every AI Robotics.
The Final Harvest: To What Profit?
So, where does this leave us? We are experiencing the new order of an agricultural economy. It is a economy that is on bits and bytes, not bushels.
The sustainability potential is unimaginable. We can radically cut down on the use of chemicals and water. The power relations are changing, however.
We shall have to make sure that the farmers, who are the custodians of the land, are the real beneficiaries of this information gold rush. Otherwise, we will end up with a high-tech system that will merely exploit them in another manner. Our future food will be determined by striking this balance.