What’s bright red, has four wheels, and chases cows? The answer is SwagBot, the world’s first “smart cow.” This bovine ’bot is moo-ving cattle to greener pastures.
Australia is a vast, often dry country. It is also one of the world’s largest beef exporters. Around 30 million cattle forage there, so finding and maintaining good grazing land is vital.
Farmers in Australia and elsewhere must constantly assess how many animals their land can support. Too many cows can mean overgrazing. That can lead to less nutrient-rich soils that support less plant and animal life. But many farmers have little control over where their animals graze within massive fenced areas.
In 2016, researchers at the University of Sydney invented a self-driving robot. They say it could someday help make cattle farming more efficient and environment friendly.
The first battery-powered SwagBot was a simple herding robot that traversed rugged farm terrain. The updated SwagBot version features sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning systems.
Today, SwagBot can determine the health, type, and density of pastureland. It can also monitor the health of livestock.
Erin O’Neill is a part-time farmer. She says SwagBot “allows us to assess our paddocks in real time in a much more detailed way.” For her, knowing where to send pregnant cows for the most nutritious feeding is important.
SwagBot acts as a shepherd or herding dog. Using information gathered from the land, the robot drives the herd to greener—or at least healthier—pastures. Then it moves them before land is overgrazed and soil becomes degraded. SwagBot can also feed important data back to farmers.
“Once the cattle are used to the robot, they will follow the robot around,” says University of Sydney professor of robotics and intelligent systems Salah Sukkarieh. His team developed SwagBot.
“You want to move the animals to the right part of the pasture where there is good protein, good carbs,” he says. “You want to be able to do that in a very fluid manner without fences.”
SwagBot sensors and data sharing features cut down on actual physical monitoring by farmers in the field. The farming ’bot represents the growing trend of automated farm machinery—especially in remote areas like the Australian Outback!
Why? God calls humans to be good stewards of His creation. That could mean finding ways to monitor and collect data on soil and plants—and moooove animals!
