Robot dogs are set to become new sheepdog style farmer’s helpers and could soon be used to lessen the hefty workload of those working in the industry.
Cornish farmer, Malcolm Barrett, has teamed up with experts at the University of Plymouth to put the powers of the £25,000 bionic hound to the test.
Scientists are using a gamma ray detector mounted on a robot to measure the health of the soil in Mr Barrett’s fields.
This can provide data to help estimate how effective farming has been and support farmers in planning how to manage their land and improve productivity.
Jake Shaw-Sutton, co-director of robotics company Robotriks in Par, told the BBC: ‘Our newest trial is looking at and focusing on what’s going on with the soil, because it’s often not considered fully and that affects everything around it.’
He added that Robot dogs – which weigh 15 kg and have a top speed of 16ft a second – could be used to examine areas that are harder to reach like hills and hedgerows.
‘The key advantage is because of those legs he’s able to climb up really difficult terrain and really difficult surfaces,’ he said.
The £25,000 gamma detector uses artificial intelligence to measure naturally occurring levels of radiation in the soil.
Robot dogs are set to become new sheepdog style farmer’s helpers and could soon be used to lessen the hefty workload of those working in the industry. Pictured: The High-Tec robot dog
Scientists are using a gamma ray detector mounted on a robot to measure the health of the soil in Mr Barrett’s fields
Usually this process would be carried out by hand but Mr Barrett explained how a robot could be far more efficient.
He said: ‘Usually I’d use a trowel to dig out soil from five areas in a field.
‘Then I’d have to send this to a laboratory and wait for the results.’
He added: ‘We’re learning more about what the soil can do for us, and what we can do for the soil.
‘It’s helping everyone by helping the environment and we’re getting huge benefits on our farm too.
‘If we can understand our soil and our crops more, we can farm smarter by targeting our approach.’
Professor Will Blake, Director of the Sustainable Earth Institute, said: ‘This trial has meant we can get our science out of the lab and test it in a real-world setting, feeding back into other research programmes we’re working on.
‘In this field lab, we’re using robotics to deploy soil assessment solutions that the world could take on.
‘It’s great to be working with real farms – codesigning research questions with farmers is really important as it makes the technology we develop genuinely useful.
‘Having thousands of data points from the robotic sensors helps to build a whole picture – then we can see if there’s certain areas that need attention and single out management practices that work.’
It comes as a robotic dogs appear to be becoming more popular worldwide with one being spotted patrolling the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago after Donald Trump’s resounding election night win.
The black and white robotic dog appeared to have a camera attached to surveil the area.
It pranced along the water’s edge in footage which has since gone viral online.
