Meet ‘Harry’: The agri-tech planting robot

CPM reports that Small Robot Company, a British agritech start-up, has won a prestigious Horizontal Innovation Award from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC), sponsored by Innovate UK. The Company harnesses the power and precision of robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the way that food is produced. The £50,000 funded research award will develop ‘Harry’, the company’s precision drilling and planting robot, from concept through to in-field prototype. The technology is built on 15 years of robotics research by Professor Simon Blackmore, the world’s leading expert on precision farming at Harper Adams University. Harry has the potential to help farms to increase yields and profits whilst substantially reducing the use of chemicals. Harry will accurately place seed individually in the ground at a uniform depth to within 2cm accuracy, creating a plant level map showing the location of each seed. A commercial trial is anticipated for October 2018. More