believe it or not, most vertical farm concepts do incorporate something similar, they've got multiple sensors, outputs for each tray, and even adjusted lighting and growth sensors. there are some issues, but they are being fixed even now with the incorporation of laser sensors to notify when the plants get too large, they are working on much cheaper alternatives, and alternatives that can basically be used in "snapshot" fashion, and not a constant drain of energy.
Seriously... did this new generation completely forget about that thing called "WORK"?! Go outside, get your hands dirty, and make something. God damn pencil pushers.
Are you a farmer or gardener? If so, more power to you! Most people are not though. Instead they just drive to the grocery store to buy food from a far away land that are also produced by machines. Only 2% of the US population are farmers.
FarmBot.io if you believe this will make people farm more youre sorely mistaken. This is just a technic lego toy for hipsters to play with until it just gathers dust in the basement. I'm all for raspberry pi and cool gadgets to play with, but i dont believe for a second this expensive toy will create a farmer...
Lacks real world application? This makes home gardening way easier. How does this not have a real world application? It eventually pays for itself I imagine due to savings in produce purchase, gas savings, not to mention time spent.
Johnny C How in the hell is this easier? How can you compare poking in a seed yourself and wetting it every few days to setting this monstrosity up? haha And paying for itself would take about 70 years... do you even know what a carrot costs?
Hi, Fabian From Argentina here. I'm an Industrial engineering student, and I wanted some years ago, grown my own food, but didn't have enough time to fully achieve the menu I wanted to grow on my backyard. This would entirely solve the problem! I love what you guys have been doing, love your philosophy of open-source everything, and I'm starting right now to save money to buy a large one for my backyard, I would enjoy it so much if you do them larger, like 20m X 30m and adaptable for every less scales, it would be awesome and even be used by farmers to produce food working less hours, it's amazing how much time and money would this save to the world... God I want one for my backyard, to show to everyone in Argentina and let you guys change the way food is produced and distributed. I also imagine lots of green roofs with this system... God it would be lovely if this goes viral, I'm subscribed to your mailing list and I'm so anxious to hear from you in Argentina! cheers to you guys!
it's actually interesting to see at what point and in which conditions this can become economically feasible. the greens will no longer need to be transported, but then again, it's not easy for everyone to find a location to grow stuff. plus, weather conditions.. or greenhouse production?
Nice! You know, maybe the next development target for farmbot should be the ability to recognize caterpillars and use mechanical ways to dispose of them (stab/cut them). No more pesticides.
opensourceror sadly, that's illegal in urban areas. Chances are that thanks to animal rights activists, that effinf squirrel has more rights than you or me.
Jet Li Yeah that's fine for watering your grass or a few select plants, but when you combine crops with different water needs in a close space like this, you need something that doses each one individually so you don't drown one and dry out another. You could plant sansavera beside a lettuce in this setup.
I feel like it would be more easy to make this work in a circle. save maybe 1 or 2 expensive step motors and controllers, you could just use a optical sensor like a scanner uses or even a joystick type of sensor. Seems like you could make the boom arm longer too to cover more area and make it worth while.
I agree, though it might also depend on the geometry of the land, to increase farmable soil, if the area is rounded I would be with you. If it's more squared, then I think the design they came up with would be better. Maybe they are considering that for future models
Circular anything is more expensive than square. Tracks are especially notorious for this, but the rest as well. Also means you can't use a normal wooden raised box, you'd have to use something plastic (the hipsters won't like that!) or rubber. No real sense trying to save this idea anyways.
The main points of this device is that it allows anyone to grow a garden large and meticulously well cared for to feed yourself without much labor, and more importantly be open for improvements made by the community. 3D printers and prosthetic limbs made by them have improved immensely over the last few years, making fairly advanced arms and legs cost a fraction of what they used to. Give this a few years and a good community and it will drastically change the way food gets to your table.
such amazing initiative!! I can't stop imagining the future with this farmBot scaled up to a point where u can grow food for thousands with a single mobile farmBot! still a long way to go but u guys will definitely be there sooner!
I would presume it would...which can make this a very dangerous profession to be in. you'd just have to input the data yourself for FarmBot to maintain the system.
deadmeh while I appreciate what it could do for....some regions, and some kinds of people. I do agree, this isn't much of a problem, weeds can be prevented by having a black (or white opaque) tarp/garbage bag over the raised garden bed, watering can be done with a simple resivoir, a pump, timer, and some leading tubes/hoses to the plants themselves, wastes less water overall, and is vastly cheaper.
The most important aspect of this is that it is open source. Even if the project fails people can improve on the technology and perhaps build an even better solution
Reading a few comments and it's obvious people can not see the potential this has. There are some who'd wire this up to the house and be able to control it anywhere, means fresh food and produce for those with busy lifestyles, and they could make changes to the system remotely. Great idea, lots of potential. I didn't see any solar in the video but it needs it.
Cool guys, I am in the process of doing a Patreon campaign called Earth Haven, the first goal with collecting funds is to get my farm self-sustainable, I have been looking at combining technology with nature, and this is exactly what I have been looking for. of course, only once I have funds to do something like this here in South Africa, then I will, the idea with Earth Haven is to create self-sustainable communities all over the world. If I find this works, then I will be doing this for all Earth Havens in the future.
Great idea, has a few flaws yet like the price but I'm sure all will be adjusted in time. Keep up the good work, this is one of those ideas if implemented all around would promote self-sufficiency and all-around just make a change for the better. Maybe you could also try market this to some indie organic-food growing companies, i think the price would be relatively much easier to manage for small businesses than individuals with small plantations/gardens. I'm all about organic gardening myself but this is a great idea, keep up the good work!
Whats this background song? I knew that we engineers can solve any problems world faces - provided we have the drive and time. Farmbot is one of many examples...
That looks like it was a really fun project to develop. However, at the scale shown in the video, this will probably not catch on. People don't grow small gardens for food, they do it for fun, mostly. And, really, a garden like they show isn't much work anyway. Half a day to plant everything, occasional weeding, and thats it. A regular sprinkler on a timer would even keep you from having to go out and water it. The extra water you 'waste' probably amounts to less than ten dollars worth over a year. Water is like .10 cents a gallon. I imagine maintaining such a system would be infinitely more work than just doing a garden.
I think this is more about the future and larger scale growth over time. The end goal of this would be to fully automate farming and be able to put one of these in a warehouse or a field to the point where you can leave it for a couple months and then when the food is ready have a truck pick it up(probably would have regular pickups of batches on different cycles than of one large batch. So where is this technology lacking. It has no automatic picker(big thing) with a collection system, is too small, and is too expensive.It being too small is not that big of an issue. Scaling isn't that hard when the tech is already in place. And price isn't that big of a problem because over time when it finally goes to large scale development the price will be cheaper. This is more in the beginning stages than towards the end. It is basically a tech demo.
Hmm when you spend $3000 to have a robot stick a seed in the ground and it fails to do it right and you have to stick your own seed in the ground with your own finger do you feel like you just set fire to three grand to be extrahipster?
Not to help this along but a real "farm bot" should be able to work without rails and be like one of those remote control lawn mowers and manage 10 acres for you not 90 square inches of raised bed. I want a wicked badass robot to spend hours at a time all day digging around and making my farm happy. Maybe farmbot 2.0 will venture into this realm of shit that really makes a difference and isn't just for city hipsters (/eyeroll) backyard raised beds that never needed a farmbot those just needed the lazy hipster to put their tablet down for ten minutes and go out and pull a weed and sprinkle water on them couple time a week. FFS gimme a break!
How about water delivery that doesn't use hoses just a trough that it dips into - I can setup a trough with a toilet float valve to always be full and maybe some GPS instead of rails. How about farmbot for trees! etc etc - farmbot 1.0 doesn't work for me at all because $3000 buys a LOT of vegetables and seeds and offer very small gains IMO
I'm on board with this. I want a robot to tend the garden freely. I want a system adaptable to have different robots for different functions. And I want it to harvest as well. That's the time saving part. If you setup your raised garden bed correctly, there is very little weeding and if you have a drip system set to a timer system, what is left for this FarmBot to do?
Just saw a video were they were working on a apple tree harvester. Still in the beta stages. But, a good "open source" system should be able to handle different robots or just robot extensions for harvesting different types of produce. And if it can tend the bee hives, then that would be perfect.
This is awesome! We built two garden boxes last year, and have had a decent crop. I'm curious why you push a weed back in the ground rather than pull it out?
pulling would be more difficult. as a seasoned gardener you learn roots are designed to hold the plant in the ground. when you pull the stem usually breaks leaving the healthy roots behind to regrow. pushing it into the ground causes it to suffocate and rot away. Most importantly. it leaves nutrients in the bed where as pulling removes. Also, it makes the bot easier to design, thus cheaper.
awesome! I love the function that smashes down the weeds. that was pretty funny. Yeah looking forward to this kind of tech dropping in price in the near future and becoming more polished. If I had an extra few $k sitting around I would be on this! Keep up the great work! Make America Healthy Again! ;)
I think it's a great freedom project but i have a piece of doubt. With this relatively small area aren't you going to have the "zucchine month", the "broccoli month" and others one plant extremely boring long periods of time? I think that if it's not, this is going to be the best project i've seen for years
it is a very good idea and creative one thank you for your invention. But i have one question which is what about plant harvesting process..... ? dose the robot accomplish that or not, or do i have to do it manually.
I think this is a great Idea! a push in the right direction, imo. Maybe this could be used for space exploration too, like a mars greenhouse that takes care of itself. The Problem currently is maybe the limitations in size and the initial set up is probably rather complicated. Is there maybe a way of building 2 on top of each other, so you can grow even more stuff? I imagine the light would be a Problem...
3,900.00? discount to 2,900? Not sure how many yer going to sell at those prices, looking at equipment and its a kit i was expecting 1,200-1000 price range. nice idea but to expensive for what u can do with other projects out there and a little manual labor. grand father had whole back yard threw some seeds down for pennies and even with a shitty crop yield had enough for him and my grandmother plus the their three kids families which i ate many o snap peas, kohlrabi, parsnips, turnips, green beans, carrots, and zucchini, plus the normal garden staples of ice ber lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes. gawd that was a great garden and he hardly did much to it. heck i had 24 herbs on my balcony that took minimal effort and they cost buck fiddy each from home depot. good luck yer gonna need it.
+James “CrazyCanuck” Paterson It was pretty obvious what his point was. He was saying that you don't need equipment that cost thousands of dollars to plant a small garden. While this is idea is cool, it's not a great investment. I see it as something cool for rich people.
This is such an awesome learning platform... U$ 3900 is nothing for that purpose :) I love this FarmBot guys... they are opening a new era of programmers, hackers, entrepreneurs, etc.
All we need now are globally interacting distributers and technical support points which are admitted to operate under conditions of a contract determined by the community. This would help to spread this innovation even under the lazy part of the society. The next step would be a business-model where the customers rent a state of the art optimized and to the customers needs customizable grow space with a loanable farmbot device, to which they get remote access and perhabs even a livestream functionalty. Like a dedicated server/VPS from a datacenter including the immediately setup/maintenance/repair service from a 24/7 available service team. The GrowCenter could also be systematically built up shielded so visiting customers could spectate and observe GrowProcess. Therefor there could be a visitor management system where the customer would also be able to request a controlled entrance period. Of course even a company who would be providing these services would have to operate under a community determined contract to establish regulated use of this innovation as in a utopian democracy. And this doesn't even have to be a private company. It could be also a public service of a community like a village or even a city. Soon there will also be the possibility to automatically crop the harvest and store it in a conservation system, where it would be ready to get picked up or delivered to a predefined location. If this fundamental principles would be structured clearly and organized and supported by powerful interactors, we could really begin to selfcontrol our food. Economic process optimization for a lucrative implementation. And the monopoly position of grocery stores would be under threat. Here we come globalization.
This is just revolutionary and fantastic. DO NOT let this vanish into a multinational safe un used... Build Build Build. Crowdfund.... I dont want to be sobbing in 20 years about the machine I saw that could save a planet and only 3 k of us saw the thing on youtube...... EDIT I forgot to say You folks are truly inspirational. Along with the news I just read that the Oil Pipeline will NOT Be going through the Dakota Sioux sacred grounds you have made a sick person feel much healthier. Thank You.
This needs to work on a larger area to be useful but is a brilliant idea. 3 grand for 4.5 square meters is a lot of money for groceries, and a lot of crops take minimal effort to maintain. Hopefully one day they'll be functioning in larger greenhouses with some kind of overhead system.
Love this! I don't see it taking care of bugs yet. I have a neighbor that has perfect organic veggies she grows in her garden. Her parents go out before sun down every day to cover them with sheets. The bugs come out at night and the sheets keep the bugs off them. It would be great if they could figure out a way for this robot to do that as well. Either that, or put it in a greenhouse.
holy crap dudes, this is amazing. I would say that the only way this could be any better is if you got it a couple nimble pincers with cameras on them, that could remove/kill bugs and other pests from the leaves so that NO pesticides would be needed. That would be the holy grail. Would need to map each leaf, be able to see and identify insects, reach out and grasp them even when the bugs are moving. Super difficult challenge, but my goodness that would solve pretty much EVERYTHING. You all rock and I hope this grows. Any body reach out to Elon about this?! lol
The idea is absolutely fantastic! I guess this is the beginning of the farming revolution: in 10 years or so, farming will be 100% made by robots, and the cost of food production will be so low that all the people on the Earth will have food, and famine will be gone!
Your site is not working. How is it possible to buy a prototype for an engineering school in agriculture? I find your practical project for blended learning (agronomy and automatic) Pierre-André
This is the kind of idea that makes my brain happy. So it is really cool, and techie, and may actually do pretty well under the right conditions. But having watched a few videos and read through the threads in order to get this to become something successful a few things need to be changed. 1) develop a better version that is not open source. the average person has no respect for what you developed, you should benefit from your work. 2) it really needs a soil ph testing tool, and perhaps a way to test for specific trace minerals. 3) it needs vaccum tips and recognition system for aphids, caterpillars, slugs, etc. and recognition for good bugs so they aren't killed. 4) a pesticide delivery system, for at least 2 different types, or a way to drain said system, and load a different spray automatically. 5) a software update allowing a more sqft gardening approach, or a plant size definition set. 6) integration with some of the awesome high tech Israeli agriculture. (ie automated drip head cleaers, ph, and water head replacer). and the ability to integrate data from those systems. also perhaps a low range wireless gps locator for the head might be a way to get around the flexible track problem, but it will take a lot of redesign. the idea to scale this up is great, but it a go big(and super high tech) or go home issue. the comments about hydro, aqua, or drip being better on water delivery can't be ignored, those comments are completely valid. I would like to see this be a huge change in Agriculture. I think it is totally possible. However at the price of 2900 for a personal system, gotta say, it is too steep for my pocket.
from what i can tell from the video is that if you want you can grow just anything with it, setup a profile for your cannabis type and hang some leds maybe to help it grow and add a tool that will give the plants nutrients so that the plants will grow strong and healthy. because its all opensource, anything is possible
I love the concept but it's an extremely expensive solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Gardening a raised bed that size is incredibly easy. By mulching my garden I rarely have to weed and water. With a nice light soil pulling weeds is a breeze. You can even set up automatic drip irrigation for under $100.
Make sure it is solar powered, that's key. Certain crops would be hard to water over head like that.. I suggest you work on undersoil watering scheme to help with evaporation and to keep water off the leaves of certain plants.. like squashes, tomatoes, peppers whose flowers are ruined by overhead watering. Plus weeds are not all to be treated the same some are extremely beneficial to the plants soil and predator bugs. I think this as it is now seems suited to greens and lettuces and would be good for those who are immobile. There are already computer operated tractors growing most of the country's food., running watering schemes, testing for soil moisture electronically..etc, so all this already exists
what about diseases and pesticides? also i think having an automated system will make much more sense in a hydroponic system...it's much more complicated and requires a really high level of accuracy, but can yield much more crops in a much smaller space. just a thought tho. great work, keep it up :)
Now add some solar panel power, battery storage, insect killing drone and the magic is complete. 2 million dollars worth of technology to produce $1000 worth of food.
This is a step in the right direction for humanity. Thanks for the efforts. Btw, I can't believe that 200 people out of 1079 dislike this. That's completely irrational behaviour and makes me wonder if paid trolls are active. For the people that are unaware of paid trolls: these are people that are paid to discredit persons or organisations. The phenomenon is a sad reality of the modern internet and feel free to ignore these people. They are just a waste of our precious time, we got work to do.
No this is not "paid trolls" here. Energy & Materials needed to produce a robot like this does'nt worth the "time labour" it save at all (not mentionning i think it does'nt save you time neither) , the garden covered is sooo small that anyone should have time to take care of it (like 3 hours to plant, on average 10 min of maintenance per day, watering, harvesting, killing weed, the place is so small, count 2h for cleaning the garden at the end of season). This is presented like an ecological new technology while i think buying hydroponic food would be almost the same on an ecological point of view (or even better), since building a such robot for a such small garden is just completely idiotic for the planet. If you don't have time for a garden this small(i mean if you don't want to find time for a bit of gardening pleasure) just find some local vegetable it will be far much better for everyone. Video disliked
I lost my shit when Farmbot started stomping that weed.
LMAO!!! I immediately thought of Harold&Kumar's WaffleBot!
you need to combine this with vertical farms. make it all automated
believe it or not, most vertical farm concepts do incorporate something similar, they've got multiple sensors, outputs for each tray, and even adjusted lighting and growth sensors.
there are some issues, but they are being fixed even now with the incorporation of laser sensors to notify when the plants get too large, they are working on much cheaper alternatives, and alternatives that can basically be used in "snapshot" fashion, and not a constant drain of energy.
You COULD buy this and set it up, program it, test it, redo everything, aso.
Or just step outside and turn the hose on for 1 minute every few days...
Seriously... did this new generation completely forget about that thing called "WORK"?! Go outside, get your hands dirty, and make something. God damn pencil pushers.
Are you a farmer or gardener? If so, more power to you! Most people are not though. Instead they just drive to the grocery store to buy food from a far away land that are also produced by machines. Only 2% of the US population are farmers.
FarmBot.io
if you believe this will make people farm more youre sorely mistaken. This is just a technic lego toy for hipsters to play with until it just gathers dust in the basement.
I'm all for raspberry pi and cool gadgets to play with, but i dont believe for a second this expensive toy will create a farmer...
Lacks real world application? This makes home gardening way easier. How does this not have a real world application? It eventually pays for itself I imagine due to savings in produce purchase, gas savings, not to mention time spent.
Johnny C How in the hell is this easier? How can you compare poking in a seed yourself and wetting it every few days to setting this monstrosity up? haha
And paying for itself would take about 70 years... do you even know what a carrot costs?
Hi, Fabian From Argentina here. I'm an Industrial engineering student, and I wanted some years ago, grown my own food, but didn't have enough time to fully achieve the menu I wanted to grow on my backyard. This would entirely solve the problem! I love what you guys have been doing, love your philosophy of open-source everything, and I'm starting right now to save money to buy a large one for my backyard, I would enjoy it so much if you do them larger, like 20m X 30m and adaptable for every less scales, it would be awesome and even be used by farmers to produce food working less hours, it's amazing how much time and money would this save to the world... God I want one for my backyard, to show to everyone in Argentina and let you guys change the way food is produced and distributed. I also imagine lots of green roofs with this system... God it would be lovely if this goes viral, I'm subscribed to your mailing list and I'm so anxious to hear from you in Argentina! cheers to you guys!
Great work, guys! It looks stunning.
I am truly impressed! Now if it can be made affordable to put it in the hands of the masses... Only time will tell.
it's actually interesting to see at what point and in which conditions this can become economically feasible. the greens will no longer need to be transported, but then again, it's not easy for everyone to find a location to grow stuff. plus, weather conditions.. or greenhouse production?
Nice!
You know, maybe the next development target for farmbot should be the ability to recognize caterpillars and use mechanical ways to dispose of them (stab/cut them). No more pesticides.
Next level would be eradication of rabbits, squirrels and other garden interlopers.
opensourceror sadly, that's illegal in urban areas. Chances are that thanks to animal rights activists, that effinf squirrel has more rights than you or me.
It is like you have no fucking idea what a butterfly is, moron.
This is brilliant. I'm always trying to figure out a better way to garden but this is light years ahead of anything I've ever tried or seen.
we have thing call automatic timer sprinkler that will water your plant automatically for less than 20$
Jet Li Yeah that's fine for watering your grass or a few select plants, but when you combine crops with different water needs in a close space like this, you need something that doses each one individually so you don't drown one and dry out another. You could plant sansavera beside a lettuce in this setup.
I feel like it would be more easy to make this work in a circle. save maybe 1 or 2 expensive step motors and controllers, you could just use a optical sensor like a scanner uses or even a joystick type of sensor. Seems like you could make the boom arm longer too to cover more area and make it worth while.
A jib crane in the middle of a round garden... LOL. You just obsoleted their entire toy for half the price.
I agree, though it might also depend on the geometry of the land, to increase farmable soil, if the area is rounded I would be with you. If it's more squared, then I think the design they came up with would be better. Maybe they are considering that for future models
Circular anything is more expensive than square. Tracks are especially notorious for this, but the rest as well. Also means you can't use a normal wooden raised box, you'd have to use something plastic (the hipsters won't like that!) or rubber. No real sense trying to save this idea anyways.
The main points of this device is that it allows anyone to grow a garden large and meticulously well cared for to feed yourself without much labor, and more importantly be open for improvements made by the community. 3D printers and prosthetic limbs made by them have improved immensely over the last few years, making fairly advanced arms and legs cost a fraction of what they used to.
Give this a few years and a good community and it will drastically change the way food gets to your table.
The self weeding is pretty cool. Hope to see it scale up in the future.
Amazing, thanks for this type of work!
RECOMENDATION:
Make the bod able to move between between different plots of land. You need not make the harness larger, make it mobile.
I for one welcome our new robot farmer overlords.
such amazing initiative!! I can't stop imagining the future with this farmBot scaled up to a point where u can grow food for thousands with a single mobile farmBot! still a long way to go but u guys will definitely be there sooner!
This is awesome! But how does the arm operate around the plants as they really big and bushy?
Great giving skynet the capability to feed us!
I like this because brings affordable organic food to you it's automated so means more time to play with my kids.worth every penny.
will this work with cannabis?
I would presume it would...which can make this a very dangerous profession to be in.
you'd just have to input the data yourself for FarmBot to maintain the system.
Sure - no reason why it can't
How does it feel solving a problem that doesn't exist then circlejerking it like the hipster tryhard you are.
deadmeh while I appreciate what it could do for....some regions, and some kinds of people.
I do agree, this isn't much of a problem, weeds can be prevented by having a black (or white opaque) tarp/garbage bag over the raised garden bed, watering can be done with a simple resivoir, a pump, timer, and some leading tubes/hoses to the plants themselves, wastes less water overall, and is vastly cheaper.
Yes but only with dwarf varieties.
Awesome work bros! This is what we need. Check out open source ecology as well!
Very impressive, guys! I wish you good luck!
I hope this is part of the future, where machines provide everything we need for free.
The most important aspect of this is that it is open source. Even if the project fails people can improve on the technology and perhaps build an even better solution
You have to have a tool that would help to kill insects, maybe with laser or some kind of it
Ye, lets get an industrial laser to kill insects...
it would be fun if the lazer mistake your eyeball for a insect,
Great idea and great video !
Reading a few comments and it's obvious people can not see the potential this has. There are some who'd wire this up to the house and be able to control it anywhere, means fresh food and produce for those with busy lifestyles, and they could make changes to the system remotely. Great idea, lots of potential. I didn't see any solar in the video but it needs it.
How many seasons will it work before it offsets the energetic cost to build
thank you so much. This is brilliant and generous
Brilliant work!!!
LOVE IT WILL PROBABLY BUY ONE! KEEPTHE INOVATIONS COMING
Cool guys, I am in the process of doing a Patreon campaign called Earth Haven, the first goal with collecting funds is to get my farm self-sustainable, I have been looking at combining technology with nature, and this is exactly what I have been looking for. of course, only once I have funds to do something like this here in South Africa, then I will, the idea with Earth Haven is to create self-sustainable communities all over the world. If I find this works, then I will be doing this for all Earth Havens in the future.
Great idea, has a few flaws yet like the price but I'm sure all will be adjusted in time. Keep up the good work, this is one of those ideas if implemented all around would promote self-sufficiency and all-around just make a change for the better. Maybe you could also try market this to some indie organic-food growing companies, i think the price would be relatively much easier to manage for small businesses than individuals with small plantations/gardens. I'm all about organic gardening myself but this is a great idea, keep up the good work!
Great Stull! I presume the equipment can be moved from one raised bed to another. What are the costs?
Can it visually recognize if the plant's going well and adjust watering and other care by itself?
Absolutely fantastic and innovative idea.....U guys are stunning.....
I really like the idea and the concept. I´ve already suscribed to receive info about it. And also I wan to part of the Peruvian team. Thank you!
Does it tell you when you need to harvest the plants?
The cool thing about this idea is to think how robotics will be assisting farming 10 - 20 years from now. You have to start somewhere.
It seems like when growth is at a later stage with wide leaves, it seems like it would only give a folar spray.
Is this solar powered or must I rely on the grid?
does "fully weather proofed" include freezing and below?
Amazing Project!!!
Whats this background song? I knew that we engineers can solve any problems world faces - provided we have the drive and time. Farmbot is one of many examples...
very interesting project!!!
This is really nice, but it is way too small.
You should develop this for a 5 meter wide, x meter long setup or something like that instead...
its very easily scale-able, just get longer rails and cables, enter in bigger numbers for the code, it will slide along the entire length just fine...
Awesome. Good work.
That looks like it was a really fun project to develop.
However, at the scale shown in the video, this will probably not catch on. People don't grow small gardens for food, they do it for fun, mostly.
And, really, a garden like they show isn't much work anyway. Half a day to plant everything, occasional weeding, and thats it. A regular sprinkler on a timer would even keep you from having to go out and water it. The extra water you 'waste' probably amounts to less than ten dollars worth over a year. Water is like .10 cents a gallon.
I imagine maintaining such a system would be infinitely more work than just doing a garden.
I think this is more about the future and larger scale growth over time. The end goal of this would be to fully automate farming and be able to put one of these in a warehouse or a field to the point where you can leave it for a couple months and then when the food is ready have a truck pick it up(probably would have regular pickups of batches on different cycles than of one large batch. So where is this technology lacking. It has no automatic picker(big thing) with a collection system, is too small, and is too expensive.It being too small is not that big of an issue. Scaling isn't that hard when the tech is already in place. And price isn't that big of a problem because over time when it finally goes to large scale development the price will be cheaper. This is more in the beginning stages than towards the end. It is basically a tech demo.
Hmm when you spend $3000 to have a robot stick a seed in the ground and it fails to do it right and you have to stick your own seed in the ground with your own finger do you feel like you just set fire to three grand to be extrahipster?
Not to help this along but a real "farm bot" should be able to work without rails and be like one of those remote control lawn mowers and manage 10 acres for you not 90 square inches of raised bed. I want a wicked badass robot to spend hours at a time all day digging around and making my farm happy. Maybe farmbot 2.0 will venture into this realm of shit that really makes a difference and isn't just for city hipsters (/eyeroll) backyard raised beds that never needed a farmbot those just needed the lazy hipster to put their tablet down for ten minutes and go out and pull a weed and sprinkle water on them couple time a week. FFS gimme a break!
How about water delivery that doesn't use hoses just a trough that it dips into - I can setup a trough with a toilet float valve to always be full and maybe some GPS instead of rails. How about farmbot for trees! etc etc - farmbot 1.0 doesn't work for me at all because $3000 buys a LOT of vegetables and seeds and offer very small gains IMO
I'm on board with this. I want a robot to tend the garden freely. I want a system adaptable to have different robots for different functions. And I want it to harvest as well. That's the time saving part. If you setup your raised garden bed correctly, there is very little weeding and if you have a drip system set to a timer system, what is left for this FarmBot to do?
Just saw a video were they were working on a apple tree harvester. Still in the beta stages. But, a good "open source" system should be able to handle different robots or just robot extensions for harvesting different types of produce. And if it can tend the bee hives, then that would be perfect.
This is awesome! We built two garden boxes last year, and have had a decent crop. I'm curious why you push a weed back in the ground rather than pull it out?
pulling would be more difficult. as a seasoned gardener you learn roots are designed to hold the plant in the ground. when you pull the stem usually breaks leaving the healthy roots behind to regrow. pushing it into the ground causes it to suffocate and rot away. Most importantly. it leaves nutrients in the bed where as pulling removes. Also, it makes the bot easier to design, thus cheaper.
Wow - I had no idea! Thanks for the info!
That hipster bearded dude is definitely high in this video.
Locally grown, locally controlled... that brings us freedom from the corporate controllers and manipulators. Good job people.
awesome! I love the function that smashes down the weeds. that was pretty funny. Yeah looking forward to this kind of tech dropping in price in the near future and becoming more polished. If I had an extra few $k sitting around I would be on this! Keep up the great work! Make America Healthy Again! ;)
I think it's a great freedom project but i have a piece of doubt. With this relatively small area aren't you going to have the "zucchine month", the "broccoli month" and others one plant extremely boring long periods of time? I think that if it's not, this is going to be the best project i've seen for years
it is a very good idea and creative one thank you for your invention. But i have one question which is what about plant harvesting process..... ?
dose the robot accomplish that or not, or do i have to do it manually.
Looks like a nice insect riddled garden to me !
I think this is a great Idea! a push in the right direction, imo.
Maybe this could be used for space exploration too, like a mars greenhouse that takes care of itself.
The Problem currently is maybe the limitations in size and the initial set up is probably rather complicated.
Is there maybe a way of building 2 on top of each other, so you can grow even more stuff?
I imagine the light would be a Problem...
3,900.00? discount to 2,900? Not sure how many yer going to sell at those prices, looking at equipment and its a kit i was expecting 1,200-1000 price range. nice idea but to expensive for what u can do with other projects out there and a little manual labor. grand father had whole back yard threw some seeds down for pennies and even with a shitty crop yield had enough for him and my grandmother plus the their three kids families which i ate many o snap peas, kohlrabi, parsnips, turnips, green beans, carrots, and zucchini, plus the normal garden staples of ice ber lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes. gawd that was a great garden and he hardly did much to it. heck i had 24 herbs on my balcony that took minimal effort and they cost buck fiddy each from home depot. good luck yer gonna need it.
+James “CrazyCanuck” Paterson It was pretty obvious what his point was. He was saying that you don't need equipment that cost thousands of dollars to plant a small garden. While this is idea is cool, it's not a great investment. I see it as something cool for rich people.
His point is you don't need a $ 2,900 tool to plant a 4ft x 10 ft garden ...gesh are your arms and legs made from spaghetti?
This is such an awesome learning platform... U$ 3900 is nothing for that purpose :) I love this FarmBot guys... they are opening a new era of programmers, hackers, entrepreneurs, etc.
u tough bloke my friend. If people want to spend $2.900 and be able to eat healthier then that s their own choice...
This is great guys,really, reallllyyy good
All we need now are globally interacting distributers and technical support points which are admitted to operate under conditions of a contract determined by the community. This would help to spread this innovation even under the lazy part of the society. The next step would be a business-model where the customers rent a state of the art optimized and to the customers needs customizable grow space with a loanable farmbot device, to which they get remote access and perhabs even a livestream functionalty. Like a dedicated server/VPS from a datacenter including the immediately setup/maintenance/repair service from a 24/7 available service team. The GrowCenter could also be systematically built up shielded so visiting customers could spectate and observe GrowProcess. Therefor there could be a visitor management system where the customer would also be able to request a controlled entrance period. Of course even a company who would be providing these services would have to operate under a community determined contract to establish regulated use of this innovation as in a utopian democracy. And this doesn't even have to be a private company. It could be also a public service of a community like a village or even a city. Soon there will also be the possibility to automatically crop the harvest and store it in a conservation system, where it would be ready to get picked up or delivered to a predefined location. If this fundamental principles would be structured clearly and organized and supported by powerful interactors, we could really begin to selfcontrol our food. Economic process optimization for a lucrative implementation.
And the monopoly position of grocery stores would be under threat. Here we come globalization.
This is just revolutionary and fantastic. DO NOT let this vanish into a multinational safe un used... Build Build Build. Crowdfund.... I dont want to be sobbing in 20 years about the machine I saw that could save a planet and only 3 k of us saw the thing on youtube...... EDIT I forgot to say You folks are truly inspirational. Along with the news I just read that the Oil Pipeline will NOT Be going through the Dakota Sioux sacred grounds you have made a sick person feel much healthier. Thank You.
Does it have an anti-slug attachment?
When you add the "Kill the Fucking Squirrel Who Keeps Eating My Tomatoes Pellet Gun Robot" plugin to this device, I'll order.
Does the burying of the weeds work effectively? What about steam weed killing as opposed to the burying of weeds?
Is it stackable? Can we do multi layer or other multi layer set ups?
It could stack if you added support for lights
congratulations . this is a big work and very important.
This needs to work on a larger area to be useful but is a brilliant idea. 3 grand for 4.5 square meters is a lot of money for groceries, and a lot of crops take minimal effort to maintain. Hopefully one day they'll be functioning in larger greenhouses with some kind of overhead system.
Now what this needs is a track that can allow it to travel to multiple beds.
This is great !
Can you please help on the music? What is the BGM used?
Love this! I don't see it taking care of bugs yet. I have a neighbor that has perfect organic veggies she grows in her garden. Her parents go out before sun down every day to cover them with sheets. The bugs come out at night and the sheets keep the bugs off them. It would be great if they could figure out a way for this robot to do that as well. Either that, or put it in a greenhouse.
How cool is this!
This is just awesome and perfect for Africa.
Is there anyone in Italy working with you? I would like to join this amazing revolution! Good job guys!
Easily the ultimate realistic minecraft food farm right here.
holy crap dudes, this is amazing. I would say that the only way this could be any better is if you got it a couple nimble pincers with cameras on them, that could remove/kill bugs and other pests from the leaves so that NO pesticides would be needed. That would be the holy grail. Would need to map each leaf, be able to see and identify insects, reach out and grasp them even when the bugs are moving. Super difficult challenge, but my goodness that would solve pretty much EVERYTHING. You all rock and I hope this grows. Any body reach out to Elon about this?! lol
The idea is absolutely fantastic!
I guess this is the beginning of the farming revolution: in 10 years or so, farming will be 100% made by robots, and the cost of food production will be so low that all the people on the Earth will have food, and famine will be gone!
u need a puller & washer 'head' for the finished vegetables with simple layout -> one-click: "pull&wash which is ready by now!".
What is the background music of this video ?
I have allergies and hate gardening. I do however like being hands on and building things. This was invented for someone like me.
Fantastic! Congratulation
Your site is not working.
How is it possible to buy a prototype for an engineering school in agriculture?
I find your practical project for blended learning (agronomy and automatic)
Pierre-André
Amazing!
This is the kind of idea that makes my brain happy. So it is really cool, and techie, and may actually do pretty well under the right conditions.
But having watched a few videos and read through the threads in order to get this to become something successful a few things need to be changed.
1) develop a better version that is not open source. the average person has no respect for what you developed, you should benefit from your work.
2) it really needs a soil ph testing tool, and perhaps a way to test for specific trace minerals.
3) it needs vaccum tips and recognition system for aphids, caterpillars, slugs, etc. and recognition for good bugs so they aren't killed.
4) a pesticide delivery system, for at least 2 different types, or a way to drain said system, and load a different spray automatically.
5) a software update allowing a more sqft gardening approach, or a plant size definition set.
6) integration with some of the awesome high tech Israeli agriculture. (ie automated drip head cleaers, ph, and water head replacer). and the ability to integrate data from those systems.
also perhaps a low range wireless gps locator for the head might be a way to get around the flexible track problem, but it will take a lot of redesign.
the idea to scale this up is great, but it a go big(and super high tech) or go home issue. the comments about hydro, aqua, or drip being better on water delivery can't be ignored, those comments are completely valid.
I would like to see this be a huge change in Agriculture. I think it is totally possible.
However at the price of 2900 for a personal system, gotta say, it is too steep for my pocket.
Can you grow cannabis with the Farmbot?
from what i can tell from the video is that if you want you can grow just anything with it, setup a profile for your cannabis type and hang some leds maybe to help it grow and add a tool that will give the plants nutrients so that the plants will grow strong and healthy.
because its all opensource, anything is possible
sure, but cannabis requires a lot of heat so you have to spend a lot on that unless you live somewhere it can naturally grow.
Yea will it grow cannibus, opium, peyote, salvia, cocoa all on the same plots?
Is it a plant? Ok then.
+Charlie Cundiff Lmaooo
I had an idea for farm domes....multiple levels of automated farming in a greenhouse dome. So when will this be available?
I love the concept but it's an extremely expensive solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Gardening a raised bed that size is incredibly easy. By mulching my garden I rarely have to weed and water. With a nice light soil pulling weeds is a breeze. You can even set up automatic drip irrigation for under $100.
Make sure it is solar powered, that's key. Certain crops would be hard to water over head like that.. I suggest you work on undersoil watering scheme to help with evaporation and to keep water off the leaves of certain plants.. like squashes, tomatoes, peppers whose flowers are ruined by overhead watering. Plus weeds are not all to be treated the same some are extremely beneficial to the plants soil and predator bugs. I think this as it is now seems suited to greens and lettuces and would be good for those who are immobile. There are already computer operated tractors growing most of the country's food., running watering schemes, testing for soil moisture electronically..etc, so all this already exists
would have been a good place to try out narrationbot
amazing when and how will it be availible in holland ( eu)
i wanna see a collab with the Hydraulic press channel.
Anyone know the name of the song that starts at 0:28?
any feasibility report on farmbot, i.e cost and benefit analysis
you said it was open source where can we find it
what about diseases and pesticides? also i think having an automated system will make much more sense in a hydroponic system...it's much more complicated and requires a really high level of accuracy, but can yield much more crops in a much smaller space. just a thought tho. great work, keep it up :)
Now add some solar panel power, battery storage, insect killing drone and the magic is complete. 2 million dollars worth of technology to produce $1000 worth of food.
This is a step in the right direction for humanity. Thanks for the efforts.
Btw, I can't believe that 200 people out of 1079 dislike this. That's completely irrational behaviour and makes me wonder if paid trolls are active.
For the people that are unaware of paid trolls: these are people that are paid to discredit persons or organisations. The phenomenon is a sad reality of the modern internet and feel free to ignore these people. They are just a waste of our precious time, we got work to do.
No this is not "paid trolls" here. Energy & Materials needed to produce a robot like this does'nt worth the "time labour" it save at all (not mentionning i think it does'nt save you time neither) , the garden covered is sooo small that anyone should have time to take care of it (like 3 hours to plant, on average 10 min of maintenance per day, watering, harvesting, killing weed, the place is so small, count 2h for cleaning the garden at the end of season). This is presented like an ecological new technology while i think buying hydroponic food would be almost the same on an ecological point of view (or even better), since building a such robot for a such small garden is just completely idiotic for the planet.
If you don't have time for a garden this small(i mean if you don't want to find time for a bit of gardening pleasure) just find some local vegetable it will be far much better for everyone.
Video disliked
Such a good idea.
Does it do weeding?
Watch the entire video dude
Nice projet! 👌👌
however invented this deserves a Nobel prize. I'm a small garden farmer