Small Robot Company offers farming through small robots not big tractors

by Startacus Admin

The Small Robot Company - The lowdown on the agri-tech startup that's using robotics and AI to innovate the farming industry through small robots...

Farming is expensive. We hear time and time again on the news about how farmers are making pennies on some of their produce, or even working at a loss to ensure that they aren’t passed over by retailers. We have written before about startups such as Farmr-r, which are created with the aim of saving farmers money while helping them to support each other. Here we have another startup that is aiming to save farmers time and money, as well as keeping their carbon footprint to a minimum.

British agri-tech startup Small Robot Company knows that the future is robotic and they have decided to harness that future for today’s farmers. Small robots are not only 100% more adorable but, arguably more importantly, they are more efficient. Compared to trundling the fields in a heavy tractor, small and precise robots have a 95% lower energy output, produce 95% less CO2, and even increase the amount of usable space.

The edges of a field often go unused or underperform because a tractor can’t get right up to the edges, and because it has to turn there, the ground is more compact. Using small, light, precise robots means the ground stays healthier and more of it can be used.

The robots come in a team of 3: Tom, Dick, and Harry. Tom monitors your fields, tracking the health and development of every individual plant. He suggests the best course of action to maximize your crop yield, and with your say so, coordinates with Dick and Harry to put this into action.

Dick takes care of precision feeding and weeding. Because he knows exactly what and where to spray, thanks to Tom, he can use 90% less pesticide and up to 90% less fertiliser than spraying an entire field. As well as spraying weeds, he has the option to burn or crush them, minimizing chemical use further still.

Harry precisely plants seeds and maps exactly where they are. This means that if the system determines a specific seed hasn’t germinated, he can return and replace that one seed. He is light enough to do no damage to the soil as he does so (which also means he can work when the field would otherwise be too wet for traditional farming).

The brains of the operation is Wilma. It is to her that Tom uploads all of his data for analysis. She applies to this data the sum of all farming knowledge and helps you to make decisions up to 10 times better.

Small Robot Company hasn’t even begun its Indiegogo campaign yet, but Wilma has already been shortlisted for Computing’s Big Data Excellence Awards 2018, in the category of Best Emerging Technology in Big Data. Keep an eye on that campaign, because not only is the future robotic, it’s closer than you think.

Small Robot Company were finalists at last year's upSTART startup pitch competition at Digital DNA, Belfast (hosted by Startacus one should add!). Ben Scott-Robinson, Founder of The Small Robot Company said of upSTART: 

"One of the premier startup competitions in the UK. The combination of slick event, fantastic support and a great process makes upSTART comparable to anything the Valley can offer."

Applications are currently open for startups to pitch at uSTART 18 - details on upSTART 18 can be found here. 

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• #agri tech

Published on: 6th May 2018