Building Robots to Help Farmworkers
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
“Farmworker automation” may sound like creating robots to take the place of farmworkers. But the real opportunity is more likely in designing automation that can work alongside farmworkers. Burro has small people-scale robots operating in a variety of agricultural operations around the country. CEO Charlie Andersen talks about what they’ve learned about building automation for farmworkers.
Andersen… “ Well the first one's a really basic one. If you're in the field in a nursery, or a vineyard, or a berry operation in the US and you don't speak Spanish, you cannot talk with anybody using your vehicle. And that seems so basic. But really, initially I didn't really understand that. So in 2019 into 2020, we hired a Spanish speaking group of customer success folks who are unbelievably awesome and have enabled us to move so much more quickly than we otherwise would. So just like from the first premise, I think if you're working around people, you better speak their language and really understand kind of what makes them tick and what they don't like. I think the second set of findings when working alongside people is that I cannot overemphasize the need for speed. I think a lot of roboticists talk in meters per second, not miles per hour. It's a little hard to go back and forth between the two. But like a human being walks at two meters per second, something like 2.5 if they're booking it.”
The final component Andersen highlights is recognizing that robotics is an interdisciplinary field, where every decision has a butterfly effect.
