Monarch Tractor - It's Electric, Autonomous and Smart
The Monarch tractor is a great-looking farm implement.
Monarch calls its tractor “driver optional,” as it can be operated as a conventional vehicle. It performs programmed tasks without a driver or an operator can use interactive “Gesture” and “Shadow” modes to have it follow workers in the field. The tractor is designed with roll and collision-prevention and has 360-degree computer vision. It can collect and analyze more than 240GB of crop data per day. That information can be used to make adjustments in the kinds of implements the vehicle is using and provide long-term yield estimates, crop growth stages and plant health metrics. The vehicle’s battery system can also serve as a remote power supply.
Although autonomous farm vehicles go way back (see automatic cultivators from John Campbell's 1930 story Piracy Preferred), many people were exposed to this idea in the 2015 movie Interstellar:
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/1/2021)
AI Enhances Images Your Brain Sees
'I could have sworn the psychomat showed pictures almost as sharp and detailed as reality itself' - Stanley Weinbaum, 1935.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'