Each year it is a constant struggle to feed the world’s ever growing population. But, in the not to distant future the farming industry will be able to up production and productivity levels with the Farmbot.
California-based 3D engineer Rory Landon Aronson used existing technologies to create an open-source farming machine made from a 3D printer. The Farmbot is designed to do many tasks such as soil preparation, seeding, watering, fertilizing, weed control, and data acquisition.
Farmbot
The Farmbot is more like a Carthesian 3D printer, which Aronson describes in his White Paper, “FarmBot is an open-source and scalable automated precision farming machine and software package.’ It consists of a scalable frame that employs X, Y, Z directions just like a 3D printer, but can instead be outfitted with sensors and any other device necessary to optimize farming output, like seed injectors, plows and water nozzles.”
This device also comes with a web-based software package that is easily modifiable for any type of vegetable or farming technique. The creator explained: “The vision of this project is to create an open and accessible technology aiding everyone to grow food and to grow food for everyone. The mission is to grow a community that produces free and open-source hardware plans, software, data, and documentation enabling everyone to build and operate a farming machine.”
The Farmbot in Action
The Farmbot will start a crowd funding campaign in early 2015 however; the hardware and software are already being constructed. Today, Aronson has started a Kickstarter campaign to develop OpenFarm, a comprehensive and free database of farming knowledge to allow his machine to access necessary data. For more information on the upcoming projects visit: Farmbot
