Zebra Technologies and Hippo Harvest Cut Resource Waste With AMR-Driven Farming
How are autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) being used in farming and agriculture to reduce negative environmental impacts and promote sustainable operations in the long term?
Zebra Technologies Corporation (the parent company of Fetch Robotics) is teaming up with Hippo Harvest to grow crops while economizing water and fertilizer use. How, you ask? Well, through precision autonomous mobile robot (AMR) fertilizer and water application.
Zebra specializes in smart data capture technology and automated solutions for manufacturing, warehousing, healthcare, and logistics. Hippo Harvest will use Zebra’s Freight100 AMRs within its greenhouses to help apply water and nutrients to plants in a more stringent manner, saving on resources and reducing waste. The bots will also be used to carefully harvest Hippo Harvest’s crops and move materials/equipment around the greenhouse facilities to free up workers for strategic activities.
Using AMRs in mainstream agriculture could help us save on water, reduce fertilizer runoff, and enhance sustainable practices. Image used courtesy of Hippo Harvest
Minimizing Waste and Mitigating Pollution
Farming practices usually involve using fertilizers to help boost crop yields, ensuring the economic viability of their land and that there is enough food for the human population. However, fertilizer spraying on fields is not targeted, which means excess fertilizer is left to travel through and undergo chemical processes within the environment. Leaching of fertilizers into the riverways can cause eutrophication, a process involving the formation of algal blooms, subsequent oxygen reduction, and the death of fish and other water-living organisms.
In a very severe case of insecticide use (namely DDT) during the 1950s and 1960s, bioaccumulation of the toxic chemical constituents filtered up through the food chain, reaching a potent level in birds of prey. The result was the poor formation of eggshells, which were so thin that they broke and spelled the end of the incubating young birds.
The N2 Vision system helps farmers map soil nutrient and moisture levels, identifying areas needing additional, targeted water and/or fertilizer application. Video used courtesy of Auto Spray Systems
AMR technology offers a solution to the wasteful use of fertilizer and water on arable land. Today, AMRs are capable of remote navigation, soil nutrient probing, water level detection, root depth and health monitoring, and more.
Zebra’s Freight100
The customizable Freight100 standard equipment base can be adapted to suit the needs of applications across other industries, not just agriculture. The Freight100 OEM base has been employed in healthcare for disinfection and cleaning purposes in the form of PUROBOT UV, Breezy One, SmartGuard UV, and Moxi.
The successful integration of the Freight100 AMR technology has allowed Hippo Harvest to save as much as 92% of water and use 55% less fertilizer. In addition to delivering nutrients and picking and transporting crops, the AMRs act as an immediate conduit for data collecting for machine learning and AI to boost productivity and greenhouse throughput.
The Freight100 AMR OEM Base. Image used courtesy of Zebra
Hippo Harvest signed The Climate Pledge, committing to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Hippo Harvest refrains from using conventional pesticides and instead uses modern plant science, robotics, and AI for crop management to boost both the efficiency and the sustainability of its farming business.
Oscar and N2 Vision
Developed by Osiris Agriculture, the AMR named Oscar waters crops such as potatoes and vegetables. During the irrigation season, it uses AI to keep an attentive eye on the crop fields, delivering the correct amount of water required for plant growth. The design of Oscar allows for electricity savings of 20% and water savings of 30% when compared to using a reel.
Another example of an AMR in agriculture is the N2 Vision system. The robotic system uses a specially designed robot arm for collecting soil samples, analysis, and mapping. It is installed on AgileX Robotics' Scout Mini transportable platform. Because of its omnidirectional wheels and elevated chassis, the robot in question is capable of traversing varied terrain autonomously, including farmlands. The method saves energy and allows for exact nutrient mapping. The Scout Mini's Remote Operating System compatibility and Controller Area Network CANbus communication protocol facilitate its use with various sensors for tasks consisting of soil temperature surveillance, water level detection, root health monitoring, pest tracking, and more.
