Communications of the ACM
Robotic Milkers and an Automated Greenhouse: Inside a High-Tech Small Farm
Small farms are starting to upgrade to high-tech operations.
Credit: Ross Mantle/The New York Times
Small farms are starting to upgrade to high-tech operations, with one example being Rivendale Farms in Pennsylvania.
According to Rivendale owner Thomas Tull, the farm uses small scouting robots designed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and other innovations to establish a "boutique, cutting-edge farm, enabled by technology, that produces great food."
CMU's "scouting robots" are designed to identify disease and weeds in vegetable fields, sending alerts via smartphone.
Rivendale's dairy barn is equipped with an automated feed system and robotic milking machines, programmed to milk the cows an average of four times daily. Lasers scan and guide the milk suction devices onto each cow's teats; milking stations dispense vanilla-flavored feed pellets, and sensors and a scale prevent cows whose udders are not full from coming back to snack at their leisure.
From The New York Times
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Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
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