Source: Questline

The agriculture industry is at a crossroads. Faced with consumer demand for food grown without chemicals and pesticides, as well as government demands that the sector decrease its carbon emissions, more and more farmers are turning to sustainable farming practices and adopting a regenerative agriculture philosophy. Organic farmers have practiced regenerative agriculture for decades and indigenous communities have done it for centuries. It's not a new concept, but the practice of farming and ranching in harmony with nature is gaining traction across the industry — and it may soon be driven by an army of small electric robots.

Electrification and the rise of regenerative agriculture

One of the key tenants of regenerative agriculture is that it reduces — or even eliminates — pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals that can have long-term negative impacts on farmlands. The philosophy also rethinks the use of diesel-powered tractors and farming implements. Historically, electrification on farms has been limited to irrigation pumping systems and water heaters. Although experts predict that mass electrification of tractors and large farming implements is on the horizon, widespread adoption is likely still many years down the road as the industry solves challenges around batteries and price points.

There are other ways the farming community can reduce both its emissions and its use of chemicals through electrification.

Electric farmbots in the field

In recent years, tremendous strides have been made in smaller electric or hybrid farm robotics. As artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and electric vehicle battery technologies have advanced, savvy developers have been working to apply these concepts to the agriculture industry. The result is a new crop of smart electrified robots that can sow, weed, feed and help with the harvest.

Here are a few innovative players:

• Greenfield Robotics is developing a weedbot that can travel at 3.5 mph and cuts down weeds with precision. Weedbot 2.0 works within inches of the crops, leaving them unharmed. You can deploy multiple bots in a field, and the company says that 10 of its Weedbot 2.0 robots can weed 10 acres in an hour.
• Naïo Technologies is another developer of electric farming robots. The company claims that its weeding bot can do in four hours what it would take a human two days to accomplish. Naïo Technologies is also working on bots that can help with hoeing and harvesting.
• Pixelfarming Robotics claims its all-electric weed-control bot can eliminate the need for pesticides and herbicides. The autonomous Robot One can be equipped with hooks, streamers or spikes to precisely remove weeds. The arms can be adjusted to suit the row width and preferred depth, and a single device can have up to 10 arms that will do the back-breaking work of five people.
• AGCO, a giant in the farming equipment industry, is working on a small electric robot that can plant seeds. The company says its bots can cover about 7.5 acres in an hour, and they use about 90% less energy than a traditional tractor.

Working conditions for these precision instruments can be harsh, so developers strive to ensure their bots can withstand the dust, dirt and moisture found in the field. Battery life is also a concern they're addressing with the help of the electric vehicle industry. But despite these challenges, experts agree that the size of these electric farmbots will allow manufacturers to achieve price parity with fossil fuel-based options more quickly. Partner that with their AI-driven precision features, and it's expected that farmers looking to transition to regenerative agriculture practices will be anxious to deploy these bots in their fields.