Discussion document for Farming Robots

docs/framing/Farming Robot Discussion.md

+#Farm Robot
+
+
+## Requirements
+
+- Must be Open Source.
+- Affordable
+- Robust
+- Easy to use
+- Easy to repair
+
+
+## Open questions
+
+- Do we want something for small/medium scale or large scale?
+- To be used inside the city? Or at farms?
+- For Interior or exterior or both
+- Which areas of farming do we want to automate?
+    - Planting
+    - Monitoring
+    - Irrigating
+    - Pest control
+    - Pruning
+    - Weeding
+    - Harvesting
+
+
+## Considerations
+
+- “According to FAO (2019b), about 90 percent of farmers worldwide operate on a small 
+scale and the technology must become accessible to this large group.“  
+ __FAO Agriculture 4.0*__
+
+- “These new platforms tend to be very sophisticated and new types of equipment are 
+continuously being developed; however, simple agrobots designed for basic, 
+straightforward tasks can already help farmers with a wide range of operations.“  
+__FAO Agriculture 4.0*__
+
+- “Small robots at an affordable price for purchase or hire represent a potential 
+alternative in areas where manpower 
is scarce and conventional machinery is not 
+available or is too costly for smallholders.”  
+__FAO Agriculture 4.0*__
+
+- “Agrobots can be designed to enable spare parts to be obtained via 3D printing, 
+enabling decentralized production 
and facilitating the related logistic.”
+__FAO Agriculture 4.0*__
+
+- Harvesting is one of the most labor intensive agricultural activities but also 
+one of the most difficult to automate.  
+
+
+\* <http://www.fao.org/policy-support/tools-and-publications/resources-details/en/c/1365039/>
+
+
+## Key words
+
+- Precision Agriculture
+- Agriculture 4.0
+- IoT
+- AI/ML
+- Automation
+- Agrobot
+- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
+- Produce more with less (resources)
+
+
+
+## Inspirations
+
+### Robot car for open-field operations
+
+Probably one of the most popular systems in the market today.
+ 
+Examples: 
+ 
+- _IP-Farmrobot_  
+Open Source?  
+Link: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQk7wucq3jM>
+  
+- _FarmDroid_  
+Non-Open Source  
+Link: <https://farmdroid.dk/en/welcome/>  
+    
+    
+Pros:
+- Open field -> Not limited to small constrained areas
+- Horizontally scalable (more robots, more production)
+  
+Cons:
+- Complex: Autonomous driving, uneven ground, changing ground
+- Batteries: Pollution, limited lifetime
+- Not much open documentation -> Lots of self development/research needs to be done
+
+
+### Robot swarm
+
+Examples:
+  
+- _Prospero: Robotic Farmer_  
+Similar to the Robot Cars, but on legs instead of wheels.    
+Open Source?  
+Link: <https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Prospero:_Robotic_Farmer>
+
+Pros:
+- "Horizontally" scalable
+- Swarm behaviour “smart” (also possible for robot cars)
+
+Cons:
+- Complex
+- Batteries 
+- Irrigation and harvesting are more complicated
+
+
+### CNC Robot for planting bed
+
+Examples:
+  
+- _FarmBot_    
+Open Source project    
+Link: <https://farm.bot/pages/open-source>
+
+
+Pros:
+- More controlled conditions
+- Easier to automate extra steps like harvesting
+- No batteries needed if there’s access to an electric outlet
+- Irrigation
+- Monitoring
+- Weeding
+- Fully documented example (Farmbot)
+- All year farming if in controlled interior
+
+Cons:
+- Limited work area (How difficult would it be to modify it to be “infinite” bed length?)
+- Not very scalable beyond production for family needs
+- Expensive for vegetable yield (maybe it is too “hight quality” for the purpose?) -> Maybe a “downgraded” version that is less precise but way cheaper could be an option.
+
+
+### Circular farming robot
+
+Examples:
+
+- _Agrokruh_  
+Kind of Open Source but no much documentation available.  
+Link: <https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Agrokruh>
+
+
+Pros:
+- Scalable
+  - "Horizontally" with more units
+  - "Vertically" if implemented the idea of moving arm through the circles.
+- Simple
+- Similar to FarmBot but for larger scales
+
+Cons:
+- Only makes sense at larger scales (Not sure if a con)
+- Outside the city -> Transportation of products
+- More dependent on climate conditions (No winter farming)
+
+
+## Ideas
+
+- Something similar to FarmBot but vertical?
+  - With soil to plant tubers or other “big” vegetables/fruits
+  - Or hydroponic for greens/strawberries/Bell peppers/herbs
+  - Maybe lower levels can be used to plant vegetables that hang to the ground (Like FarmBot suggests at the ends of the bed)
+    
+- For open-filed operations there is the concept of RTK-GPS which is high precision GPS positioning (1cm).   
+Tutorial: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/what-is-gps-rtk/all
This company uses that technic https://farmdroid.dk/en/welcome/
+ 
+
+
+## Comments
+
+In case of going for large scale farming:
+Probably we should not try to solve the agricultural problems we think are important.
+Although we can do our research on the main activities to automate it will always be 
+important to talk to the end-user/consumer of these new technologies so we can design 
+the correct solution for their problems.
+
+Talking, understanding and engaging with the farmers and their needs is crucial for 
+the adoption of new technologies, specially in the agricultural sector that has not 
+seen much change for generations.