Small Autonomous Robot Tractors

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Returning to his family farm in the UK after college, Sam Watson Jones realized their costs had continued to increase over the years, but their yields hadn't really changed in decades.

He saw the potential in adopting precision technology, but saw a limitation - there was no equipment designed to maximize precision agriculture. This led him to launch the Small Robot Company.

Watson Jones … “What we are trying to do is to deliver the technology that enables per plant precision agriculture. That is, being able to recognize each individual plant in the field. Being able to identify what is happening with the disease status of each individual plant. What's happening with the nutrient status of each individual plant. Built into that is a much more granular understanding of the soil. So, whatever that looks like, that's what we will create. Whatever is going to deliver on that level of accuracy. Now the tractor looks like it does because it is an automation of the horse. Or it's the mechanization of the horse. You know, and it has been designed to do the same job as the horse did. But for that to be much, much more powerful. The next innovation is to go, okay, let's not design something that is designed to be as fast as possible. Which is what the tractor is and that's why tractors have got bigger and why the machines they pull have got bigger. Let's design something to be as accurate as possible.”

The small autonomous robot tractors provide crop monitoring, non-chemical weeding , and precision planting.