Tech Development - Robots Farming

Farming has always been a huge industry when it comes to labor that almost anyone can do. But soon enough the labor spent on farming may very well be used elsewhere, as a small company named Iron Ox in Silicon Valley is starting the steps towards revolutionizing the hydroponics market. Using purely mechanical staff to locate and harvest ripe plants. It has also made the decision not to utilize LEDs, but rather to utilize the greenhouse method. One of the main issues this is frowned upon is due to the fact that there are no tractors indoors, so any staff would have to labor through hundreds of meters of crops under harsh, magnified sunlight. Utilizing a system of rails and a group of smart, white rectangular prisms with arms, they are able to negate the costliness of greenhouse work otherwise.
Even so, other elements of this practice come into play when considering efficiency, for example, a quote from Brandon Alexander, the CEO, says “This, combined with the fact that we don't have to worry about seasonality—we can always be seeding, always be harvesting—allows us to grow over 30X per acre compared to an outdoor farm,” This particular usage of certain methods not only automates greenhouse farming and hydroponics, but supercharges it. One of the biggest issues brought about by this, in some people's opinions, is the potential of robots stealing jobs from humans, and while that does sound scary, not to worry, another quote from Brandon Alexander states “We've talked to dozens of commercial farmers, outdoor and indoor, and the biggest issue by far is labor scarcity,” which makes sense, newer generations with better educations won't want to be taking up farming, so the faster we move into this, the faster we move up in the agricultural world.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ieL7x3AMg
             https://www.wired.com/story/the-hydroponic-robotic-future-of-farming-in-greenhouses-at-iron-ox/

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