FarmBot brings robotic farming to your backyard garden

The robots are coming... to water your garden.

While many people find gardening with their own two hands a relaxing activity, acompany called FarmBot is now selling robots designed to weed, water and grow fresh produce for you.

CBC Radio technology columnist Dan Misener looks intothe appeal of the robot gardener.

How does the FarmBot work?

The first version of the FarmBotcalled the FarmBot Genesisis designed to work in a raised garden bedor garden box.

The robot itself moves around using tracks on the sides of the box, and it works in three dimensions. So it can go left toright;forward andbackwards;and up anddown.If you've ever seen a 3D printer, it moves around in a similar way.

But instead of squirting out plastic, the FarmBot sows seeds, waters plantsand gets rid of weedsusing different attachments for each job. Itcan grab different tools, depending on the task at hand.

This robot has been in the works for a few yearsbut you can now actually buy one now. The California company behind the robot has started taking pre-orders, whichcost about $4,000 Cdn. And in the last month, FarmBot has raised about$1 million to start manufacturing kits.

Who isthe FarmBot for?

FarmBot seems to be designed for people who want to grow their own produce, but aren't terriblyinterested in the actual work of gardening to get that produce.If you browse through the FarmBot forums, you'll find a mix of hobbyists, tinkerersand educators people with a decidedly technological bent.

Part of the idea behind FarmBot is that it's designed to work in relatively small gardens.If you pre-order a kit, you'll get standard tracks that are three metres long. The robot isdesigned to work on raised beds that are about about 1.5 by three metres. Sosmall spacesbackyard farming, rooftop farmingor small greenhouses.

The team behind FarmBot says one of their goals is scalabilityso it can work in largeror smaller areas, depending on your needs.

One of the most interesting aspects of this project is that it applies the same kinds of automation we see in large-scale agriculture, but on a much smaller scale.

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FarmBot is opensource. What does that mean?

It means the source code for all the software, and the blueprints for all the parts, are public and freely available soyou can modify or tweak it.

In a promotional video,Rory Aronsonthe founder of FarmBotexplainedthe types of customizations you can make.

"If you want to use pesticides, you can do that. If you don't, you don't have to. If you want to water your plants in a certain way maybe with mister nozzles, versus a shower nozzle, you can do that," he said.

"You can measure the pH, measurethe temperature,measure whatever it is that you want to do, soyou have complete control and agency overhow you grow your food."

He sees the FarmBot not so much as a product, but as a platform that can be customized as you see fit.

How canthe FarmBottend to different plants?

It taps into an earlier project called OpenFarm, which is an open-source crop database.You can think of it as sort of like Wikipedia, but for farming and gardening knowledge.For each crop, there are details about how much sunand water it needs, what type of soil is best, row spacing, and so on.

Because thatdatabase is designed to be read by both humans and machines, the FarmBot can download crop informationand use it to tend a gardengiving each plant the right amount of water,testing the pH of the soil,that sort ofthing.

The FarmBot is controlled by a web app, which you can use to manually control the robot. Or you can set it up on a schedule.

I don't have a FarmBot at home, but I have played with the app. Ifyou remember the online game FarmVille, it's a bit like that. You lay out your crops,water your plants, and weed the garden. Butunlike FarmVille, you're doing it with real plants.

If I want my own garden robot, what do I need?

As mentioned, FarmBot pre-orders have started, so you can buy your own kit.That gets you most of the hardware you'll need to put together a FarmBot, but you still have to supply the raised garden bed, the power, and the internet connection. And you have to put the whole thing together.

But if you have a bit more technical know-how, the entire FarmBot project is open source. So if you want to take a more do-it-yourself approach, you can download all the CAD models and manufacturing files to build your own.

And if you have access to a CNC router (acomputer numerical control router a cutting machine that's computer-controlled)router and 3D printer, you can print out many of the components you'll need to build a FarmBot. The rest, such asthe computer components, are all readily available and relatively low-cost.

If you take the DIY approach, there are full instructions available online.

I know a lot of educators have built their own 3D printersand laser cutters as class projects. And if the FarmBot takes off, I can see it becoming another really great way to teach kids not only about electronics and coding, but also about farming.