Farm robots are capable of taking over the work of farm laborers. It’s a possible solution for illegal immigration and invasions.The UK under Brexit is concerned about the lack of refugee labor that will ensue and they are trying out farm robots that can do the work of laborers in Lincolnshire.
Brexit was the motivation:
“That’s the main motivation for this — it’s a huge concern,” Pål Johan From, the robotics professor who developed Thorvald, said of Britain’s vote last June to leave the EU.
Gripping a joystick that looks as though it were borrowed from a video game console, Mr From manoeuvred Thorval around the grounds of the University of Lincoln, where he is a part-time professor, as a group of farmers and researchers looked on. Its rectangular frame and thick wheels were nothing fancy. Still, one of the local farmers marvelled. “It looks like the future,” he said.
Thorvald has already mastered useful — if rudimentary — tasks: he can carry trays of strawberry plants to human pickers, sparing them miles of walking through vast fields. At night, he passes over plants with ultraviolet lights to kill mildew that might otherwise spoil as much as half the crop.
President Trump is looking to restrict illegal immigration, thus limiting the numbers of farm workers coming through Mexico. As a result, Blue River Technologies, a California-based start-up is hoping to develop these robots,. The company has raised $17 million from Syngenta and Monsanto as well as Innovation Endeavors, the venture fund of Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
Its tractor-towed machines can determine an individual plant’s needs and apply targeted treatment, reducing the use of chemicals “while capturing valuable plant-by-plant data”.
In Japan, where an aging population means many farmers are heading towards retirement, robots are growing lettuce — moving up and down aisles to plant, water, trim and harvest.
Developers say such efficiencies will make farm robots inevitable.
And the stream of radical Marxists flooding the country will be under control. The minimum wage will not apply though unions are looking for ways to force unionization of robots – we kid you not.
