Im Oktober 19 bin ich im lokalen Makerspace (brigk.digital) auf einem Netzwerktreffen. Am Ende der Veranstaltung wird das Community-Projekt vorgestellt, das im Makerspace aufgebaut wurde: Der Farmbot ist ein Portalroboter für den Garten, der pflanzen, gießen und Unkraut erkennen kann. Dieser Roboter ist ein Open Source Projekt eines kalifornischen Startups, das mit guter PR (farm.bot) verspricht, die Welternährung zu revolutionieren.
Tatsächlich hat er mehr Verwandtschaft mit einer Modelleisenbahn als mit einer landwirtschaftlichen Revolution, aber die Idee ist erkennbar und gar nicht so schlecht. Technologisch handelt es sich um einen vergrößerten 3D-Drucker, bei dem der Druckkopf durch ein Werkzeug-Wechselsystem für den Garten ersetzt wurde. Das dazugehörige Webportal erlaubt es, Pflanzen aus einer Datenbank in der braunen Erde auf dem Bildschirm zu verteilen und im Kalender die Gießintervalle zu hinterlegen. Im Makerspace wurde der Roboter “Giesbert” genannt, weil Gießen das ist, was er am besten kann.
Ich schaue mir im Makerspace neugierig die Demo an, freue mich an der naheliegenden Idee und finde gleich tausend Schwachstellen zum Herummäkeln (nicht wetterfest, Korrosion, Pflanzenhöhe, Dreck ...)
Zuhause lässt mich das Thema nicht los, aber nach einer kurzen Preisrecherche verabschiede mich von der Idee, mir einen eigenen Giesbert zu bauen. Zwei Tage später messe ich unser Hochbeet aus – es hat zufälligerweise exakt die passende Länge. Ich finde in den ebay-Kleinanzeigen einen gebrauchten Farmbot, handle den Verkäufer etwas herunter und baue im November aus den Einzelteilen erst im Wohnzimmer, dann im Garten einen Farmbot Genesis V1.2 auf.
Ein Farmbot benötigt Strom, also verlege ich 15 Meter Kabel unterirdisch in Leerrohre im Garten. Damit man nicht sagen kann ich würde nur herumspielen, baue ich gleichzeitig endlich die seit Jahren fehlende Beleuchtung für die Treppe und den Weg im Garten.
Ein Farmbot benötigt Internet, was auch erst nach einigen Iterationen ordentlich im Garten ankommt. Eine Webcam muss auch ans Beet, damit man im Winter auch testen kann, ohne frierend am Hochbeet zu stehen. Man sieht jetzt am Notebook auch, wie das Wetter draußen ist, ohne sich umdrehen zu müssen.
Seit November habe ich mich jetzt mit der unreifen Hard- und Software beschäftigt und bin sehr zufrieden. Alles ist weder besonders nützlich noch wirklich fertig, aber hat als Produkt genau die Reife, mit der man eine bastelwillige Community zur Mitarbeit motiviert.
Ich habe inzwischen den schlechten Bodenfeuchtesensor gegen einen besseren kapazitiven ausgetauscht, habe neue Werkzeuge konstruiert und am 3D-Drucker ausgedruckt.
Das Pflanzwerkzeug saugt die Samen mit Unterdruck an, fährt sie dann an den Bestimmungsort und versenkt sie im Boden. Dabei saugt es natürlich auch die Erde an, die dann die Unterdruckpumpe verstopft. Aber wie das so ist in Open Source Projekten, ein anderer Farmbot Nutzer hat schon einen Pflanzstab konstruiert, mit dem man Löcher in den Boden machen kann, bevor man die Samen ganz elegant in die Löcher fallen lassen kann. Ausgedruckt, getestet, funktioniert.
Inzwischen habe ich Karotten, Kohlrabi, Radieschen, Pflücksalat, Rucola und vieles andere „vollautomatisch“ gepflanzt (Ich stehe daneben, beobachte jede Bewegung und drücke hin und wieder auf dem Smartphone hektisch den Stopp-Knopf). Seit wenigen Tagen klappt das automatische Gießen und die ersten Triebe spitzen aus der Erde, von denen man natürlich sogar ein unscharfes Selfie machen kann.
‘Tarzan’ the robot saves energy by swinging. Someday, it could help with farm work by moving along wires strung across fields of crops.
This is one in a series presenting news on technology and innovation, made possible with generous support from the Lemelson Foundation.
Working on a farm and tending crops can be hot, time consuming and difficult. Engineers have long wanted to build robots to lighten the load. But it has proven no easy task. Robots that walk or roll along the ground can trample delicate plants. And they can get bogged down when rain turns fields muddy. “Tarzan,” however, could overcome some of those challenges. Like its namesake, this new robot swings through the air.
Jonathan Rogers is a robotics expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. When it comes to a farm environment, he realized, many robots would face a number of problems. “They tend to get tangled. They tend to get stuck,” he says. What’s more, he notes, “It’s very hard to leave them out for long periods without a human assisting them.”
That’s when inspiration hit him: What if the robot could move above the crops? After all, he realized, “Sloths move from tree branch to tree branch to avoid having to walk around the forest floor.”
Inspired, his team set out to design a robot that could swing hand-to-hand along wires suspended above a field. He named their invention Tarzan, after the jungle-swinging character of books and movie fame. Why not name it for a sloth? “There’s no famous sloths that I know of,” he says. (Apparently, Rogers never watched the 2016 Disney flick, Zootopia. If he had, he’d know about Flash, the “fastest working sloth in the DMV.”)
Drones, another type of robot, fly above the land. Yet these, too, have some disadvantages. A gust of wind can blow them off course, for instance. And if their propellers got too close, drones might damage plants. More importantly, drones have a short battery life. To tackle long tasks, farmers might have to recharge them every half hour or so.
Swinging, in contrast, is an energy-efficient motion. The reason: It makes use of gravity to power movement. This is similar to the way a child can pump her legs to get a playground swing to go higher and higher. With that efficiency, a robot like Tarzan can work out in a field for months at a time, without needing to be recharged, Rogers says.
Here is an example of automated farming on a smaller scale. Imagine for a moment how revolutionary it would be to have one of these in every neglected suburban backyard.
This technology could bring gardening to people who cannot physically garden through normal means - such as people with disabilities, elderly people who have become forgetful, or simply people who are too busy to garden normally.
If someone were to start a leftist group specifically dedicated to setting these up in food desert neighborhoods, they would literally change lives.
I’m feeling a bit exposed in penning these predictions. Admittedly, the safer bet probably would be to gamble your money against them. While a voice in my head tells me not to publish what I have to say; a much louder voice in my head has totally drank the kool-aid of urban agriculture.
That louder voice is full of optimistic energy, the sort of stuff that is foundational for genuine change. So perhaps my title is someone misleading; I don’t necessarily prognosticate these four points will happen in the future – but rather – I dream of a world where this is our future:
1. By the year 2037, it will be mandated that all students take cultivation, nutrition, & wellness courses during their primary or secondary school education.
I think it’s safe to say that every parent in the world wants their child to be healthy. I have a hard time imagining a parent would ever say, “No thanks, I don’t want my child learning about how to become a healthy human being.” What I can easily see though, is how the devil is in the details.
Who will pay for these school programs and what will they really look like? Those are valid questions indeed, and I will circle back to my opinions on the larger topic of public governance during my 4th and final prediction; for now however, I want to stay on my point that the mindset and political will for this education reform will develop.
Stephen Ritz, a personal friend and the undisputed champion of cultivation in education, is already pioneering this path. If you ever have heard him speak, you know his momentum is something like a freight train of green values. Yet Stephen’s Green Bronx Machine isn’t the only community pillar fighting this good fight: there is also Teens for Food Justice, Community Healing Gardens, the Kitchen Community, and countless other organizations. Behind these community organizers’ continued action and advocacy, the momentum for teaching our growing children to become children who grow will continue.
Click here for info on Stephen Ritz’s book, The Power of a Plant
As our friends on the frontlines of education plant more seeds, the movement towards healthier children will mature. Connective tissue will be formed through new data and evidence. Studies and analytical comparisons of classrooms where students grow will prove that these children are learning about more than just plants. Waistlines will shrink, behavioral issues will decrease, and perhaps most importantly for fueling this change from an administrative point of view, test scores will increase.
Since traction begets traction, this data will be necessary to form the political will for reformation of our education system to incorporate cultivation and wellness into the curriculum. However, alongside the political will, a mature industry will need to be in place to ballast the change.
So to overcome the potential speedbumps of this evolution between now and 2037, the urban agriculture industry will need to develop to support a political push. Which brings me to my second prediction…
2. Urban Agriculture Will be Totally Mainstream Within Ten Years
For the time being, gardening is hard work. Understandably, a vast majority of people don’t have the time, resources, or discipline to get outside and cultivate their own sustenance. Yet seemingly every day, a new kickstarter or major company announces a step towards trailblazing a new path forward in our sprouting sector.
Those new products, companies, and implementers will push the boundaries of how and where people garden. Farmbot, Agrilution, and the food computer are all great examples of ways to easily garden that would not have been feasible even five years ago. These revolutionary cultivation solutions will popularize “Agritecture”, the merging of agriculture and architecture. As people start to see Agritecture design amenities pop up in trendy real estate developments, a snowball of more people and investment will be attracted to the field. As that snowball grows, innovation via augmented investment is inevitable.
The Farmbot is capable of taking the work out of gardening.
Steve Jobs was the prophet of end-to-end user experience. With significant advances in materials science, machine learning, nanotechnology, and biotech on the horizon, our sector can and will converge with the forefront of innovation. At that point, end to end user experience will integrate into maintaining domestic and commercial Agritecture installations.
At the risk of sounding like a naïve millennial, I imagine a connected future where cultivation can be as easy as pushing the popcorn button on your microwave. Once we have that level of end-to-end UX integrated into how we cultivate, once it really is that easy, Agritecture concepts will be in every home, restaurant, office, and structure with wifi. So to circle back to my first prediction, why wouldn’t it be in our schools too?
3. Kimbal Musk’s achievements will be noted in history as on par with his brother Elon’s
I know what you’re thinking. Talking about the next Elon Musk is so cliché. It’s like talking about the next Apple… But hear me out:
Elon is currently undisputed champion of innovation for this generation. He is the man behind Paypal, Tesla, Solar City and SpaceX - which means he has had a hand in disrupting currency, mobility, energy, and even the final frontier of outer space - four seriously complex sectors for one entrepreneur to redefine.
On top of all of those reasons to be skeptical that Kimbal will genuinely rival Elon, I have never met Kimbal, nor do I pretend to know much about his venture Square Roots. While my employer Blue Planet Consulting did complete a successful consulting engagement with Square Roots, I was not directly involved in that project in any way.
So why am I audaciously prognosticating that Kimbal Musk – a man I’ve never met – will one day rival his brother Elon; a proven once-in-a-generation entrepreneur? I have a simple answer to that: My religion is food.
I found this religion because, like you and every other human being on earth, I eat everyday. During this daily experience of consumption, I attempt to be mindful that I am merely an organic body ingesting other organic matter. This organic matter that I am absorbing and metabolizing will fuel not just my corporeal body, but my spiritual mind as well.
Yet eating isn’t the only ritual in the ‘religion of food.’ Procurement of ingredients, dining selection, and cooking are also critical cornerstones. In these processes, we create authentic bonds with ourselves and our loved ones.
Yet many, lack the ability or discipline to tap into the potential of the emotional capital in our kitchens. The constant battle to avoid choosing to ingest food that is easy, inexpensive or mouthwatering seems difficult or impossible for many; while for others, the choice for healthy food simply doesn’t exist. For anyone who falls in the above two categories, from what I can tell, Kimbal is on a path attempting to help.
In this way, I’m placing my bet on Kimbal more as a wager on the sector of food, rather than as a gamble on an individual. I am confident that an improved food system will generate massively positive outcomes, and since I’ve seen Kimbal place a stake along the same line, I trust he will go far.
So Kimbal, if you’re reading, I’d like to work alongside you in improving the food industry! I feel that your cowboy swagger is exactly the type of leadership our movement needs if we are to elbow a new mentality into the callous food system we’ve inherited. Let’s talk sometime about the path forward for how you can catch and even surpass your brother’s impact imparted on our species?
4. There Will Be a Turning Point in History Known as The Organic Revolution
Americans today are living Donald Trump’s America. It’s a bizarre world where all of our public resources seemingly channel away from logic or compassion. Yet Donald Trump and those infected by the 1980’s consumerism-at-all-costs mentality will only be in the driver’s seat of America for a limited time. In time, there will be a changing of the guard, and millennials, the largest consumer class in history, will be guiding the path forward.
Just as I have a significant amount of faith in food as my religion, I have conviction that our millennial cohort is more caring and capable than any before us. We were raised as the most linked generation on earth. Our connections and communities in the virtual world endow us with fresh power to realize whatever we can imagine.
Ideas can and will spread through our cohort at the speed of light. Thought leaders shaping those ideas will transcend beyond the confines and conventions that bounded those before us. New ways to crowdsource helping our fellow citizens will emerge and our future leaders will use those channels to more effectively rally resources. The empathy and means to help one another will be more available than ever before!
Our current 240-year-old system of governance was founded during an epoch of pen and paper, horse and carriage, slavery and mercantilism. Since inception, it has morphed time and time again. The current incarnation is perhaps among the ugliest, however as a bright green eyed millennial, I still believe the next manifestation of structure can leap us towards utopia.
Somewhere in between the polar opposites of what we have now and the singularity-minded future we have the potential to develop, we will require a new lexicon to describe our movement. What better way to define that approach than as The Organic Revolution?
By Andrew Blume
4/19/17
Follow Andrew at @ABlumeTweets
Motivated to join The Organic Revolution? Follow @Agritecture for articles, events, and more.
** Author’s note: During certain points in this post, I referred to “agritecture concepts or the agritecture Movement.” I use the term agritecture not necessarily in reference to the Agritecture Platform that I co-manage with Henry Gordon-Smith, but rather because I feel the term agritecture is simply the most practical term. I often find terms like vertical farming, urban agriculture, building integrated agriculture, and other related lexicon to be overly narrow or clunky. **
‘Tarzan’ the robot saves energy by swinging. Someday, it could help with farm work by moving along wires strung across fields of crops.
This is one in a series presenting news on technology and innovation, made possible with generous support from the Lemelson Foundation.
Working on a farm and tending crops can be hot, time consuming and difficult. Engineers have long wanted to build robots to lighten the load. But it has proven no easy task. Robots that walk or roll along the ground can trample delicate plants. And they can get bogged down when rain turns fields muddy. “Tarzan,” however, could overcome some of those challenges. Like its namesake, this new robot swings through the air.
Jonathan Rogers is a robotics expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. When it comes to a farm environment, he realized, many robots would face a number of problems. “They tend to get tangled. They tend to get stuck,” he says. What’s more, he notes, “It’s very hard to leave them out for long periods without a human assisting them.”
That’s when inspiration hit him: What if the robot could move above the crops? After all, he realized, “Sloths move from tree branch to tree branch to avoid having to walk around the forest floor.”
Inspired, his team set out to design a robot that could swing hand-to-hand along wires suspended above a field. He named their invention Tarzan, after the jungle-swinging character of books and movie fame. Why not name it for a sloth? “There’s no famous sloths that I know of,” he says. (Apparently, Rogers never watched the 2016 Disney flick, Zootopia. If he had, he’d know about Flash, the “fastest working sloth in the DMV.”)
Drones, another type of robot, fly above the land. Yet these, too, have some disadvantages. A gust of wind can blow them off course, for instance. And if their propellers got too close, drones might damage plants. More importantly, drones have a short battery life. To tackle long tasks, farmers might have to recharge them every half hour or so.
Swinging, in contrast, is an energy-efficient motion. The reason: It makes use of gravity to power movement. This is similar to the way a child can pump their legs to get a playground swing to go higher and higher. With that efficiency, a robot like Tarzan work out in a field for months at a time, without needing to be recharged, Rogers says.
Decided to start up Stardew again with a new character, one who’s a Robot. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, (more or less since I saw the weird visor as an accessory option), and I’m glad I decided to make her, since my other files are myself, plus two Tumble files (thought the original was lost when my computer initially died).
