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| Australia's cowbot being tested on the ranch. |
THE Australian Centre for Field Robotics, in conjunction with the
University of Sydney, has mated a drone to a moon buggy to create the SwagBot.
It is an all terrain robot that can do anything the cowboys did on Brokeback Mountain, except provide
companionship.
The last warning is from the promotional video, which aims to sell
the Swagbot to ranchers working the vast farms in Australia’s outback,
Leader of the project, Salah Sukkarieh, said a trial that began in
June has confirmed that SwagBot is able to herd cattle and can navigate its way
around ditches, logs, swamps and other features of a typical farm
landscape.
He said the trial has been very successful so far, and the team is
ready to move to the next phase, which is to develop algorithms that can monitor
the health of stock and check the progress of plants and locate weeds.
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| The cowbot can cross rivers too. |
During the trails, the all-terrain robot proved it could:
• tow any wheeled equipment on the farm, thanks to
independent traction on all four wheels;
• surmount high obstacles, thanks to the
independently driven wheels that adjust themselves and rotate for the best
direction that is suitable for the path; and
• monitor animals.
Like a drone, the operator gives the robot a target destination and
then lets it get on with it.
Its battery is good for a few hours and it can reach speeds of
19 km/h, climbing with spider-like legs over logs and crossing creeks.
There are no prices yet and specifications are likely to change
should this project ever get to large-scale production models, but Sukkarieh
said the pricing for the all-terrain robot is intended to be low-cost.
