Robot gardeners
Posted by Mr. Buracas on 2009-04-13
A class of undergraduate students at MIT has created a set of robots that can water, harvest and pollinate cherry tomato plants.
Small, custom built, $3,000 robots, move through the garden on a base similar to a Roomba vacuum, and are networked to the plants. When the tomatoes indicate that they need water, the robots can water them using an onboard pump. When the robots identify a ripe tomato, it uses a mechanical arm to pluck the fruit.
Read more courtesy of Ecosalon.
