It’s open-source. It’s customizable. And it’s just as exciting to gardeners as is it is to garage tinkerers. Meet FarmBot, humanity’s first open-source Computer Numeric Control (CNC) farming machine.
FarmBot is a CNC machine comprised of a gantry mounted to a set of tracks on either side of your garden. Attached to the gantry is a tool mount, which can be equipped with a variety of gardening tools such as a seed injector, watering nozzle, weed remover and more.
With the capacity to move in the x, y, and z directions, the entire 3D volume of your garden can be precisely accessed. By using the assortment of different tools, FarmBot can manage every step of a plant’s lifecycle, all controlled through a web interface.
By equipping sensors to FarmBot’s tool head, such as moisture meters, thermometers, and pH sensors, the machine can also generate gardening data that can be used to increase efficiency and grow better food.
The FarmBot Genesis is currently available for pre-order for $3900 USD, and is expected to ship in February 2017. No more glazing at the moon to understand when it’s better to seed or water your field, let the machine doing it!
Source: ENGINEERING.com
