Farmbots bring precision to the business of food production

By nurturing crops on a plant by plant basis, new technology can cut chemical use and boost yields.

Tom winds through the rows of wheat, stopping at plants along his route: scanning, mapping, checking vitals, taking photographs. Dick follows closely behind, pausing from time to time to unfurl his lightning rod and unleash a laser death zap to an unsuspecting weed. Harry plants seeds at measured intervals. Unseen but overseeing, Wilma monitors their progress, aggregating the data sent by her rolling army.

Tom, Dick and Harry are farmbots. Wilma, their watchful AI. And they represent a small but growing revolution in the farming world.

The prodigies of Bristol-based start-up, Small Robot Company, this mechanical fleet is the first of its kind: nimble and sophisticated robots that can optimise arable farms, from seed to weed to feed.

Working in controlled harmony, Tom and Dick weave through a field, taking high-resolution photographs of the crops every few seconds. These are sent to Wilma, who matches the images to precise GPS data, generating a map of the field that’s accurate to within 2cm. Proponents are evangelical about the revolutionary potential of this technology for farming’s future. It equips farmers with the ability to understand and nurture a crop on a plant basis – right down to individual leaves – rather than a field basis.

“By helping us be more precise and targeted, this next generation of farming robots can help us protect biodiversity and the natural environment,” says Andrew Hoad, a partner and head of Waitrose’s Leckford Estate.

Waitrose, Lockerly Estate and the National Trust were some of Tom’s first commercial customers when the robot was rolled out in 2021. Dick is undertaking pilots and will be commercially available by 2024. But the initial figures are striking. Arable farms using Tom, Dick, Harry and Wilma can cut the use of chemicals by 95 per cent. Carbon emissions are slashed by similarly dramatic proportions. This is not at the expense of profitability. The company’s figures claim revenues increase by about 40 per cent while costs are reduced by up to 60 per cent.

This has huge implications for both the economics of farming and its impact on the environment. Conventional farming depends on the blanket spraying of chemicals to kill weeds and pests. This damages soil quality, crop yields and biodiversity. The robots are equipped to zone in on individual weeds: microdose sprays replace mass poisoning. Dick and his micro-lightning bolts may one day usher in the end of all weed-killing chemicals on farms. The farmbots — particularly no-till [soil disturbance] Harry — also have the potential to render big, expensive farm machinery permanently redundant.

SRC is part of a cohort of ag-tech start-ups hoping to ameliorate some of farming’s most pressing challenges.