Latest News From Robotics

A farm kid from Kansas is bringing a new robotic weeding concept to market and he’s got big dreams for the future of crop protection.

Its first harvester was for strawberries, and last year it launched the apple harvester for use in Washington.

Solinftec has been partnering with retailers in the Corn Belt to deploy 20 Solix robots in 2023.

Many of the machines still be developed highlight AGCO’s stated goal of providing autonomous solutions for every season in crop production by 2030.

The second annual Western Growers Specialty Crop Automation Report reveals a 25% increase in average year-over-year agtech investment.

Carbon Robotics plans to use new funding to expand sales regions for its weed control platform, as well as scale manufacturing, develop new software and hardware products, and launch into international markets.

Farmers are starting to ask what artificial intelligence bots like ChatGPT can do for them. John Phipps went straight to the source, asking ChatGPT what it can do for farmers.

See & Spray Premium is available for John Deere MY 2018 and newer self-propelled sprayers in the U.S. with factory-installed ExactApply System/ ExactApply Performance Upgrade Kit, steel boom and 15” or 20” spacings

The possibilities with future products and services demand connectivity says Cameron Holbrook, vice president of digital at Nutrien. 

Herbicide-resistant weeds are a growing problem for farmers across the country. Luckily some new technologies are on the horizon to help battle the bullies of the plant world. 

As one of the first retailers to commercial selective spraying in their agronomic offering, Jeff Crissinger, VP of Agronomy Sales/Marketing at NuWay-K&H Cooperative shares how they are positioning this technology.

Nadav Bocher, Co-founder and CEO of Greeneye Technology, says he plans on FBN being the primary go-to-market channel for machines in just a few years. 

John Deere's ExactShot, unveiled during CES, uses sensors and robotics to place starter fertilizer precisely onto seeds as they are planted. The company claims the technology comes with a fertilizer savings of up to 60%.

The Hayward, Calif.-based company's commercial robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) services a variety of specialty crops on thousands of acres with orders pending for tens of thousands of additional acres.

Sabanto, founded in 2018, is working to allow farmers and ag retailers to convert any make and model into an autonomous tractor through an equipment retrofit kit.

10 things top executives had to say about their vision for Corteva in the near future.

More than three dozen U.S. John Deere dealerships will now sell the GUSS autonomous sprayer. The company says the Herbicide GUSS is the first and only autonomous orchard herbicide applicator.

"The early autonomy customers are helping us define the future and they are a key part of setting the direction for the product,” says Ben Voss, director of sales at Raven.

For the past three years the team at Solinftec has been working on advancing its solar powered autonomy platform.

The technology and machine marriage mean one or more driverless machines can operate in the field without an operator present in the cab.

Sabanto marks the fund’s second investment, the first being an investment in Monarch Tractors last November.

Farmer DIY: Low-cost, weed-specific automated sprayers built on-farm are on the near-horizon for agriculture.

Monarch Tractor says it has the first fully electric, driver-optional, smart tractor, but the leading edge company has bumped against state regulations limiting its expansion.

The latest Fendt Xaver is outfitted with Precision Planting components and plants seeds 24 hours a day, has sub-inch precision, and uses features a lightweight electric design producing zero emissions.

GUSS is based in Kingsburg, California and has engineered a semi-autonomous orchard and vineyard sprayer.

“Technology is here, and it’s never going to go away. It’ll only advance more,” says Matthew Boomsma, Agtegra.

Solinftec’s new robot built to scan and monitor fields is being used by the team at Growmark in the 2022 season from planting through harvest.

Driverless solutions such as OMNiPOWER provide a solution to:  Labor constraints.  Short harvest windows.  Increased yields due to reallocation of resources. 

Yield monitors on combines. Module-building cotton pickers. Automatic row shut off on planters. Now for sprayers, will selective smart spraying systems be the next must-have productivity enablers? 

The FBN-assigned machine is in addition to the four of the systems (installed on four brands of sprayers) in operation in the U.S. Midwest.

Introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show with nearly 5,000 watching the live stream introduction, John Deere introduces its full autonomy solution for tractors, which will be available to farmers later in 2022.

The arrival of a precision, pellet-slinging, automated rover may provide almond growers with a cutting-edge NOW control weapon. Welcome to the age of robotic mummy removal.

In social media posts, John Deere is giving a peek behind the curtain for what’s coming. 

"This acquisition will add strong innovation capabilities to accelerate our precision and digital strategy," said Scott Wine, Chief Executive Officer, CNH Industrial.

As just one example, Anastasia a robotic setup from Sabanto Ag autonomously planted over 750 acres this spring across four states

A laser beam could be the future of farming. Does an unmanned Autonomous LaserWeeder represent a transformative moment of change for agriculture?

The future is here, and for the future of agriculture, it is not a moment too soon.

The AgJunction board of directors unanimously approved the transaction after a confidential process of entertaining offers of third parties.

"Precision and autonomy are an opportunity for us, and Raven really helps put us in a very, very competitive position," Wine says.

Kubota Corporation and Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. have invested in U.S. startup Advanced Farm Technologies.

Raven is putting the spotlight on its autonomous product lineup and debuting the Omnidrive installed on a Case IH Magnum tractor. It was announced in June that CNH Industrial was acquiring Raven for $2.1 billion

The startup focuses in building retrofit systems to use its patented artificial intelligence for fully autonomous tractors. The company says its technology deploys 360° situational awareness.

Meet “Annie.” This robot being used by Corteva Agriscience is the result of a partnership with Boston Dynamics and Trimble.

Scott Wine, CEO CNH Industrial “Precision agriculture and autonomy are critical components of our strategy to help our agricultural customers reach the next level of productivity...” 

The company plans to make 40 final beta systems for this fall, which will be the last prototypes before its first fully commercial version in the spring of 2022.

As it continues to develop the core technologies from its acquisitions of SmartAg and Dot, Raven announces its brand for driverless technology going forward.

“What we've learned from the farmers we can't measure– it’s the most important thing for us in designing this robot,” Ben Johnson says.

The acquisition was completed in the first quarter of the Company’s current fiscal year. 

A farm-centric innovation model has been the focus of the AgLaunch and Farm Journal Row Crop Challenge to aide early-stage agtech startups to solve on-farm problems.

Startup EarthSense says in 2019 its 40 robots collected more than 10 Terrabytes of data, and the company will more than double that number of units this year to close to 100 robots.