[olafura]

For me Farmbot ( https://farm.bot/ ) is some of the most interesting thing happening in open source farming and they aren't apart of this initiative. None of the projects are really something your need a framework for.

I think what some of the projects involved are doing is laudable but it's not really revolutionary.

Then again I don't do farming though some of my family and friends of my family do.

[kickout]

I do farming. I'm intrigued by this concept, but am hesitant. I don't see any value add off the bat.

[olafura]

From my understanding how you can help farming with software.

You have supercharging current methods which most of the projects in the OpenTeam initiative are doing which seems to be turning into the AgStack Foundation if I understand it correctly. Think adding smart sensors might be some of what they are planning with the framework and importantly all the planning and managing of farms which the strangely named FarmOs is doing ( I say strangely since it's not an OS ).

The other is doing things with hardware and software that aren't mimicking or supercharging current methods but just implementing a new and more efficient way of doing things. Think the difference between making a perfect robot hand and making thing that grips. Both do the same thing but one is not trying to do the same things as the other. So here you have things like Farmbot that probably need so be split into separate stages of operation if it is going to scale at a farm field level.

I feel like we are past the making a better tractor and other farm machinery phase and are moving into automating everything we can phase. Because the problem with our current processes is that they are stressing soil and the nature too much. By having diverse crops in the same field you both minimize the impact of soil, groundwater problems, salting and stuff like that, but also minimizing the risks in farming where you rely on futures commodity markets instead of having a wide balance of produce.

But I'm no expert and haven't put much thought into this. Just want us to head in the right direction and make sure we invest in the right things.

[olafura]

Nice you are thinking about similar things like "autonomous weeding machines".

[olafura]

My biggest problem is with hardware/software combos bolted to something like tractors.

When I was working as a surveyor for my families construction company, we gradually transitioned to having surveying capabilities added to our machines.

And I can tell you they are overpriced pieces of garbage that still work but boy they are backwards. There is some really cool tech but it's obscured by really old buggy software.

The problem with bolting things to existing equipment is you are going to face so many hurdles that is why only a certain type of companies even try to do it. Those include being allowed to integrate with the hardware. Usually not companies that developers interested in elegant solutions. Not that I don't think people that work for those companies can't do interesting things they are usually hindered in doing so.

That is why most companies trying to innovate go the route of building things themselves.

That is also where you would find people that believe in open source that want to do interesting things.

Why bolt things to a tractors whey you can just mod something like a 4x4 vehicle.

I'm a person that would not build a farmbot or probably work much on it in my free time. Have plenty of side projects. But I think their tech is cool and their methodology I feel is right. So I would probably join them as a developer if things lined up. I can't say the same for any of the other projects.

What you need to look out for is when developers are excited about something. It doesn't mean it's the right solution but it's really good starting point.

[peteradio]

That is gardening not farming.

[olafura]

You always have to prove things out on a small scale for it to work on a large scale. When I was in my early teen we had a summer program to plant vegetables. I do understand that it's not the same as large scale farming having grown up around farming but fundamentals are still similar.

Yeah having stationary structures doesn't make sense in large scale farming but AUV with the tech that is in Farmbots makes a whole lot of sense.

But I might be missing something. Also the farming I have experience is just in Iceland where things don't get that big. I've been around a lot of different tangential things to do with farming since my father side went from farming to construction. But I feel like a lot of the things are similar.

But what I know most about is software and I am mostly judging things based on that and I'm really impressed with Farmbot and the choices they made.

[qchris]

I think that there's some degree of "you can't get to the moon by climbing taller trees" happening here. There are methods that can be promising for gardens, and even smaller-scale farms (less than triple-digit acres, say) that don't feasibly scale up to what amounts to continental-scale farming like you see in much of North America. It doesn't mean that those approaches don't have value, just that at some point the scale of the problem space changes things pretty fundamentally.