America's first autonomous robot farm, Iron Ox, launched last week in California, with the hopes that artificial intelligence (AI) can address the growing labor shortage.
The farm boasts that it has the ability to grow 30 times more produce than traditional farms with its technology, The Guardian reports.
The farm utilizes a 2,000-square-feet of grow space and plans produce in individual pots. Autonomous machines created by Iron Ox do the heavy lifting, farming and sensing. A machine, affectionately known as Angus, moves around the farm lifting and transporting grow modules to the processing area. A robotic arm will then harvest the plants by gripping the pots.
According to The Guardian, the robotic arm has sensors that can determine whether a plan has any diseases, pets or abnormalities.
Iron Ox developed the technology in 10 years after discovering how difficult it was to maintain human labor on farmlands and has distinguished the robot from other autonomous robots. The Guardian reports that both robots contribute data and are controlled by a cloud-based software.
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