Oregon Growers: This Might Be the Droid You are Looking for

CORVALLIS, Ore. — There’s a shout from across the field.

“Who’s got the remote?”

Those who have gathered at the Oregon State University North Willamette Research and Extension Center (NWREC) are looking at a large, square-shaped machine, which deftly navigates between rows of beets.

“It needs no remote,” said Dane Watson, one of the company experts in the technology.

The growers watch the machine make its way down the field. Their nods show that they are impressed.

Meet FarmDroid, an innovative solar-powered Danish agricultural technology introduced to Oregon farmers in a recent demonstration by Kristie Buckland, an OSU vegetable and specialty seed crop specialist and Pete Berry, an OSU weed science specialist.

The machine — which sells for $70,000 to $90,000 — can seed, weed and spot-spray fields based on a pattern established by its own software. The FarmDroid can also respond autonomously to hazards like rocks and muddy patches — which is important for Western Oregon’s long rainy season.

Buckland is conducting research that compares agriculture fields worked by the FarmDroid with more traditional methods.

Buckland was awarded nearly $175,000 under a Specialty Crop Block Grant from the Oregon Department of Agriculture to cover the next 3 years of her research, which also includes collaborating with OSU agricultural research and Extension colleagues Berry and Cindy Ocamb, a plant pathologist, to examine the potential of drone technology as a fungicide applicator. OSU’s partnership with FarmDroid and initial research was funded by the Specialty Seed Growers of Western Oregon and the Oregon Processed Vegetable Commission.

“The FarmDroid is astoundingly impactful,” said Buckland, explaining that where other weeding equipment goes over a field multiple times using cameras or other AI ‘find’ weeds, the FarmDroid reduces the number of weeding events due to its highly effective approach of weeding according to the GPS location of the seeds it planted. All without emissions, compaction of soil, and with a huge reduction of human labor.

Buckland was inspired to pursue this research because she has observed the multifaceted needs of Oregonian growers over her last six years at Oregon State.

“The hardest part for me in this job has been not being able to solve some of the problems in the system that are not horticulture-related,” said Buckland. “Problems like labor availability, the cost of labor, the price differential between imported foods and locally grown foods — those are things I am not trained in — but they definitely affect whether growers stay in business.”

Local growers who’ve seen the FarmDroid at work agree it could be helpful. “What I’ve heard from growers, is, ‘Wow, I could significantly reduce the weeding costs on my farm,’” said Buckland.

Having it at NWREC also allows growers to have access to what Buckland describes as “one of the most advanced technological approaches to obstacles in farming” in their own backyard.

“Growers don’t have to travel to an agriculture show in the Midwest to be able to see this stuff. It will be right here,” Buckland said.

Buckland sees the droid as a potential win across the board. Not only would the droid potentially be economically sustainable, but it also has the potential to reduce chemicals on the farm, improve soil health and decrease emissions.

“It’s a revolution,” Buckland said.