Crop-inspecting robots

Alphabet develops farming robots - 26th October 2020

Alphabet, the company which owns Google, has developed a new type of robot which will examine individual plants on farms. Alphabet hopes these robots will help to grow crops more effectively.

The robots roll through crop fields on tall columns. This makes sure they don't damage the plants. Their aim is to gather large amounts of data about how crops grow.

The robots have been developed by Alphabet's Project Mineral, which aims to create world-changing technology. The world's need for food is increasing. Project Mineral hopes these robots will help farmers grow enough for everybody.

The robots can check every single plant in a field to see what it needs. In a blogpost, project leader Elliot Grant said he hopes the technology will change the way food is grown.

At the moment, farmers are able to find out about the weather, and soil content on their farms. However, these new robots have been designed to see how plants are "actually growing and responding to their environment". The robots come in different sizes for different crops and can collect data about lots of different things.

Farmers in Argentina, Canada, South Africa and the US are already working with Project Mineral to test the robots. However, it's not yet known when the robots will be used in other countries.