PHOTOS: Here come the crop robots

Here come the crop robots: Naio Oz

Naio Oz: The Oz Small autonomous unit is leased to nine farmers, mostly market gardens, to help with weeding smaller plots.

Photo: John Greig

Here come the crop robots: Naio Ted

Naio Ted: This unit from France weeds between rows in vineyards. Haggerty Creek Robotics is marrying it with technology from a Canadian startup company called Vivid Machines, which analyzes fruit crops and helps farmers and others in the supply chain understand the volume of yield on its way.

Photo: John Greig

Here come the crop robots: Robotti

Robotti: The Robotti unit is a smaller power unit, an autonomous 70-horsepower tractor with a three-point hitch. It can pull different kinds of equipment, including tillage and planting.

Photo: John Greig

Here come the crop robots: FarmDroid

FarmDroid: The FarmDroid is working in the Holland Marsh, where the solar-powered, slow-moving unit has been planting and weeding onions.

Photo: John Greig

Here come the crop robots: Naio Dino

Naio Dino: The Dino unit is a mid-sized robot that’s working on an organic farm near Oakdale to help the farmer keep up with tillage for weed control in soybeans.

Photo: John Greig

Here come the crop robots: RoamIO

RoamIO: The Ontario-made Korechi RoamIO is being used in a project with SoilOptix to autonomously test soil and also to pull a row mower unit, which allows weeds and cover crops to be mowed in between rows of plants like soybeans.

Photo: John Greig

Here come the crop robots: Autonomous platform

Autonomous platform for delivery: This platform, developed with off-the-shelf parts at the University of Waterloo, could be used by farmers to deliver crops to storage or processing.

Photo: John Greig