Farmer Vs Robot

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Robots are making their way onto the farm in larger and larger numbers thanks to improvements in connectivity, compute power, and artificial intelligence. But should we be concerned that ag robotics will displace humans on the farm? Robotics entrepreneur Daniel Theobald doesn’t think so.

Theobald… “I believe very firmly that automation should never be about getting rid of people. Because when that is the focus, we tend to make bad decisions. Automation should be about supercharging human labor. We should empower people to be more productive and to do things better with the resources they have available. That's the goal. I don't need this robot to be perfect. I don't need this robot to do everything. Why? Because it doesn't have to do it by itself. It's going to be a companion to human workers. It's going to help them just like the tractor did, just like all kinds of technology helps humans to be more productive. We don't need to jump to this fictional world of complete automation and there are no humans involved besides, what fun is that? That's Wall-E. That's all we're all sitting around on floating couches and not really doing anything.”

Theobald is the owner of Twisted Fields, a working farm and innovator in ag robotics.