Article and photos courtesy: FarmBot
E
ntrepreneur Rory Aronson has developed the
world’s first open-source CNC farming machine. The FarmBot Genesis, available to preorder as a kit from July, is made from 3D
printable plastic components, and can be used to remotely plant, water, and monitor a garden.
FarmBot Genesis, is a brilliant idea from entrepreneur
Rory Aronson and his small California-based crew. They
have built a 3D printed CNC farming machine, 100%
open source, which can be controlled digitally through
a simple web-based interface.
Genesis is quite literally a robotic device that can be
controlled through a smartphone or laptop. “It’s simple enough to use in your home but sophisticated
enough to adapt to a larger scale,” Aronson said.
Maintenance sequences can be easily scheduled, allowing complete remote control over the miniature farm.
Aronson’s idea with FarmBot was to make precision
agriculture and the development thereof open and accessible to all. The FarmBot Genesis system can be built
for around $1,500 to $4,000, and features an interface
through which users can tailor their garden patch to
their liking. The kit is an autonomous machine that’s
installed atop and around a small garden—in your
backyard, on a rooftop, or inside a greenhouse or lab.
Once built, Genesis performs nearly the entire gardening process prior to harvesting, including planting the
seeds, watering each plant precisely and on a set
schedule, monitoring.
Need to water different seeds at different times? Simply pop the time into the schedule, and the FarmBot
hardware will do its thing using linear guides in the X,
Y, and Z directions. The tools of the machine can even
be controlled manually in real time.