There's no doubt that agriculture continues to be an extraordinary challenge when it comes to robots and robotics, as what can be done in more predictable environments, completely fails in the unpredictable environment of agriculture.
Even so, students s the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were tasked with the challenge of creating a robot that would take care of cherry tomato plants.
From watering, to pollinating to harvesting, each student was given the responsiblity of finding an answer to how to meet each individual need of the plant.
Some were obviously harder than others, as sensors in the soil send data to the robot concerning watering and fertilizer needs, while more difficult tasks like creating a robotic arm that could pick the fruit was far more difficult, even though there was a rudimentary software program defining the cycle of the plant and when to pick it, along with a camera to view it.
Even though this is a start, it will be a long time, if ever, the type of robot envisioned could replace human beings in this simple task.
The environment in agriculture would have to be almost completely controlled for a robot to be able to successfully fulfill its duties.
Robot trends will continue to fascinate people, but we're a long way of in areas like these before any meaningful results will occur.
