Robotics Continued from Page 11
higher incomes for individuals dedicated to growing the food we eat.” Rublee, who describes himself as a “se- rial roboticist and entrepreneur,” said he envisions farm-ng as a tool to stabilize the feasibility of small farms. He pitches the Amiga as a lighter, lower-cost alternative to some imposing high-tech harvesters and weeders that can stand 8 feet tall and can carry a hefty price tag. “I’m excited to be the outlier,” Rublee said. “It gives us a space to play.” He said part of farm-ng’s business mod- el is collaborating with farmers who need help purchasing an Amiga. Rublee said he helps farmers connect with Central Coast Community Energy’s Ag Electrification Program. The community-owned elec- tricity provider offers rebates to customers who replace fossil fuel powered agricultur- al equipment with new, all-electric equip- ment, according to its website. As to what inspired his engineering as- pirations and move to agricultural robot- ics, Rublee said, “I worry about the next food system.” “Agriculture is a large part of the solu- tion,” he added. “I’m thinking of the next generation of technology to grow our food that enables communities instead of dis- placing them. It’s the world we’d like to see.” (Caitlin Fillmore is a reporter in Monterey County. She may be contacted at cslhfillmore@gmail.com.)
farm-ng in 2020. The term “ng” is commonly used in computer programming language to rep- resent the idea of the “next generation” always on the horizon. “We see customers using (the Amiga) in ways we hadn’t thought,” Rublee added. Rublee was also founder and chief tech- nology officer of Arraiy Inc., a Palo Alto ar- tificial intelligence and machine-learning firm with clients in the motion picture and video game industries. Now, in his new venture, he is marketing farming robots. The Amiga’s brains are contained in a 4.3-inch rectangular touchscreen, similar to a modern car’s infotainment system. Two cameras operate farm-ng’s propri- etary “vision navigation” system, technol- ogy that will also be used to land the Blue Ghost spacecraft on the moon next year. The screen mounts to a “tractor commu- nication backbone.” Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and at UC Agriculture and Natural Resources out- fitted the Amiga with robot arms capable of squishing invasive moths. Another cus- tomer transformed hand-weeding opera- tions to the Amiga, which tripled produc- tivity, Dorn said. In the past two years of sales for the Amiga, 100 robots have helped a
Equipped with a touch screen and a “vision navigation system” used for spacecraft, farm-ng’s Amiga machine is marketed as an agricultural robot capable of performing many farming tasks.
variety of farmers achieve multiple tasks in places including Napa Valley and with new landscapes and crops in Iowa and Pennsylvania. Watsonville farmer Larry Jacobs of Jacobs Farm del Cabo was the first Amiga customer. Today, Jacobs uses a fleet of Amigas to move harvested herbs, flowers, tomatoes, squash and other vegetables out of the fields and greenhouses of his organic farm. Jacobs Farm del Cabo farms nearly 5,000 acres between Watsonville and the Baja California peninsula of Mexico. Amigas assist in bed mulching with compost, cul- tivating, vacuuming insects, transporting trash cans to the dumpster and flaming
weeds as they emerge, Jacobs said. “It’s not a replacement for a tractor but does a lot of the light work with minimum soil compaction, quietly, and is easily op- erated,” said Jacobs, who rotates seven ro- bots around his Watsonville farm. Jacobs has been following the evolution of robotics in agriculture since 2015 and said he believes the technology will define the future of farming. “Tomorrow’s farm will be dependent on autonomous tools integrated with data collection to make smarter and more precise decisions,” he said. “Change is be- ing driven by growing labor restraints and increasing costs of living that mandates
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14 Ag Alert July 19, 2023
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