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You can now pre-order FarmBot: an automated farming robot

FarmBot Genesis is being hailed as a solution for home gardening that promises you truly automated food production.

The engineering and idea here is truly impressive, but we have many reservations. So let’s look at how it’s made before we get into the shortfalls.

In essence, FarmBot is a robot that works in an X, Y and Z axis that uses multiple interchangeable tools to plant, water and care for various types of crops.

Its intended purpose is to let anyone create a small home garden that creates edible produce based on the needs of the owner.

Made of aluminium, stainless steel and 3D printed plastic, after being assembled the user can take to a web interface to plan their garden and FarmBot will do the rest. The creators promise continuous operation outside in rain and other conditions too.

At the heart of the machine is both a Raspberry Pi and Arduino Mega running opensource software. It’s not just that, because the hardware plans, printable CAD models and documentation are all available for free.

Aside from the efforts to create food, being open source is also a major push for this machine. The developers even have a community wiki and forum and support recreations which they do not profit from.

That all sounds great and that nicely produced video really sells the product, but looking a bit deeper we found a host of problems.

First, let’s talk price. Currently you can pre-order your own Genesis for $2 900 (R41 600). Once July is over this deal will end and it will revert to a RRP of $3 900 (R56 000). There’s also the international shipping rate at $250 (R3 600) and import fees and duties to think about. Don’t forget about the seeds you’ll need to buy, the water it needs and the energy consumption.

They do speak about a solar and collected rain solution to make it even more autonomous, but that’s not included in the price.

Considering the fact that it only covers a piece of soil 1.5 metres wide and 3 metres in length, and you’re paying a lot of money for a very small plot.

We’ve had our hands in soil before at looking at the price is somewhat unbelievable. With some cheap seeds and tools, and some free knowledge you can learn online, you can accomplish exactly the same result here. It may not be autonomous, but it is much cheaper and a better fit for this country and continent.

There’s also a few other flaws, or at least gaps in knowledge. The tool they use here to fight weeds simply pushes them beneath the soil. That won’t destroy the weed s you need to uproot it and completely destroy the root system or it will come back like, well, weeds. While a claw-like head would be great to add here (and we’d have an opportunity to do so thanks to the open source information), getting rid of weeds is really something you can’t leave to a robot.

When we select stories here at htxt.africa we try bring you the most interesting idea that we ourselves believe in. At the moment we can’t decide if FarmBot is an incredible invention or a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

We’d love to know your thoughts, so tell us on Twitter, Facebook or our forums.

 

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