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"[Science fiction is] nightmares and visions, always outlined by the barely possible."
- Gregory Benford
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| Agricultural Robot Pest Controller | ||
| An agricultural robot specifically designed to perform pest control activities. |
At the start of the movie Runaway, Jack Ramsay and his new partner are called in to work with an agricultural robot that is out of control and zigzagging around in a corn field.
He gets the lowdown from his staff.
 (Agbot emerges from the stalks) "What's the model? 7799 agricultural?" "Got yourself a runaway, Jack?" "...pest controller. The CPU is an old 8088." "Any armament?" "Just the claw. And it's only programmed to look for things smaller than an inch." |
| From Runaway,
by Michael Crichton. Published by Tri-Star Pictures in 1985 Additional resources -
|
This movie agro-bot (or just agbot) has a very nicely programmed sense of touch; it can pick a larva off a leaf easily.
(Agro-bot performs pest control)
It turns out that Crichton or his special effects guys must have been paying attention to the robotics news. The first intelligent agricultural robot (as opposed to farm machinery) was tested in use for tomato harvesting in Tampa, Florida in 1983.
Read these related stories; AgBots: Agricultural Robots Take The Field and Robotic Tomato Harvester Ready For Space. Take a look at an interesting journal article on Agro-Robotics here; it includes a set of links to some interesting papers.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Runaway
More Ideas
and Technology by Michael Crichton
Tech news articles related to Runaway
Tech news articles related to works by Michael Crichton
Agricultural Robot Pest Controller-related
news articles:
- HortiBot - Autonomous Weed 'n Feed AgBot
- Lettuce-Bot Weed-Killing Robot Funded
- Laser-Armed Robots To Do Weed Control
- Promobot, The Runaway Russian Robot!
- Autonomous Oz Weeding Robot
- Tiny Tertill Autonomous Weeding Robot
| Mashambas Skyscraper Farm Design Wins |
| Self-Driving Tractors From China Plan Ahead |
| John Deere Self-Driving Tractor |
| SWEEPER Robot Peter Piper Picking Peppers |
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'It was time - time to go again. She touched the leaf. She was wanted.'
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'There was a heap of discarded ore where Grantline had carted and dumped it...'
