Humans have been farming since we learned how to plant crops and domesticate animals. With the rapid development of automated technology systems that can assist in everyday agriculture needs, robotics may soon be replacing the traditional farm dog.
Meet Swagbot, the newest member of Australia’s farm robot fleet. The Australian robotic cowboy can herd cattle and pull heavy trailers in mud. It can navigate through ditches, logs, swamps, and other features of a typical farm landscape. It can traverse rugged terrain, tow heavy loads, tackle obstacles, and herd animals. It has been designed to manage livestock on Australia’s vast sheep and cattle stations, which are often remote and difficult to access.
The Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) in the University of Sydney has built the SwagBot. ACFR is one of the world’s largest robotics research institutes and is actively involved in the research and development for field robotic principles and systems.
SwagBot is built to be a low cost, powerful robot to work across the expansive, rugged areas of the Australian farm terrain. The machine has been showing off its skills in a trial that began last month on a farm near Newcastle, Australia. The battery-operated machine with all-wheel drive can reach speeds of 15 to 20 kilometres per hour on smooth terrain.
According to Professor Salah Sukkarieh of the University of Sydney, who is leading the trial, the next step will be to teach the robot how to identify animals that are sick or injured.
“The trial has been very successful so far, so it’s given us the confidence to move to the next phase,”
His team is planning to add temperature and motion sensors on the robot to detect changes in body temperature and walking gait, as well as colour and shape sensors to make sure the animals have enough pasture to graze on.
“Over the next few months, we’ll be looking at what algorithms we need to put together to allow the animal monitoring,”
Researchers have previously shown that farm robots can be used to monitor the health of crops, but SwagBot will be the first robot in the world to monitor the health of livestock.
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