I am a fruitarianism enthusiast trying to find a partner keen to live with me in Australia firstly to help me frow fruit and also develop/invent farm automation or remote control : www.fruitarian-robots.com
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1) snowpea mentions steel. Steel is barely used in robotics because it is to hard to machine. Aluminium is used for the big stuff and an ORGANIC plastic called PLA is 3d printed for the complex stuff. In my bots, I will replace aluminum with wood. Literally the entire body of my robot will be recyclable.
Hi Collin,
so you are the ahimsa fruitarian?
1. that's why iron is alloyed with different other base matals to create a steel alloy with desired properties for the specific end function. You would need steel for the motor, gearbox or belt, differential and axels since aluminum would not have the required sheer strenght. Have never seen any agricultural machines built in almuminum and this wolud be very expensive if it was done, they come in steel alloyes becuase it's hard working soil and moving over agricultural soil or forested lands. PLA is sensitive to UV as most plastics and thus not used for agricultural implents as a base material, maybe in small quantities, PP would be better since it can be stable in direct sunlight for many decades. Wood are suceptible to root so not suitable for prolonged use in the fields, have to treat or coat yearly since exposed to soil and moisture.
2. i am refereing to the concept on the website. R&D = research and development, this involves making many prototypes before you will get to the final product, so even if your final machine weights less then 200kg ,you would probobly have to build 5 (200*5=1000) or more before you have something that would be able to move in the field primitily (not plant and harvest). Many of the robot arms at Scania factory that I can program weights more then 1000KG including control equipmment and attachments, for example the ABB IRB 4400.
3. just becuase someone is a millionare does not mean they know much about agriculture or proper methods for planting and harvesting fruit. on thediscussed website there's cartoon iamges of machines and to go from that stage to real working machines that can efficiently perform taskes with a net gain in time/energy spent would probobly take more then a lifetime from my experince creating real working mechatrionic solutions. It took me and the swedish royal institure of technology robot association one year (weekend work) to create a mini sumo robot that won the swedish championship in robotics, to build an autonomous robot for planting and harvesting is another thing, nature is not linear like a concrete floor with shelving (like in the amazon warehouse), this makes the task very difficult and to be able to find the fruits of the right stage to pick is in my opinion infinetly complex hence why i say it probly would take more then a lifetime of R&D.
these machines would still casue more damage to animals and our shared habitat since the amount of material and energy (construction and maintanace) needed would never yield more kilocalories then they consume during their whole lifetime cycle. and these machines would end up killing more animals then they could ever spare. ahimsa = non-violence.
a food forest can be planted without the need of money since a calabash full of seeds and a stick would be enough if the stick planting method is used.
I wish you a fruit full day Collin,
snowpea
BTW, I read your site. The way you would use spoiled fruit as the energy source for the robots would be to coil a bunch of water pipes underneath the hot, rotting compost. The bacteria will generate heat with their metabolism and heat the water. You can then us the temperature differential to turn a generator and create electricity. Basically a powerplant fueled with compost. Ever see manure get so hot it catches fire. Its pretty cool to see...
I used to work in a coal fired power plant and I got to watch swirling ball of fire in the giant hotel lobby sized boilers. I could probably put together a small compost generator... seems like a neat idea. I'll have to try that on my farm.
Literally my only other post on this site was in 2015 about this same exact topic: https://www.thefrugivorediet.com/forum/topics/looking-for-a-female-...
Hi AF,
I once was a machatronics engineer and thought I would comment on your project.
The R&D (Research and development) for the robots you wish to implement would probobly cause more damage to our habitat and animals then the net gain in habitat creation they would give the world.
You would need multiple prototypes first which would require lots of material, for example to manufacture 1kg Steel (from iron) it requires 20-50MJ (5,550 to 13,900 watt-hours) in energy. You would probly need over 1000 kg of steel for the R&D process aloneand this is a huge amout of energy, in comparison humans use on avarage aproximately 10MJ per day (2500 kcal) and this human expenditure would be added to your R&D process since robots don't build themselves, they are not self-reproductive or self healing like oranisms.
Your R&D for this kind of robot would proboly take more then 4 years so you would be at a huge energy loss even before you deploy these machines for any good work. Manufacturing steel also requires water, this in junction with the energy need will mount up to a great deal of deforestation and animal deaths. The manufacturing and use of the final robot would mount up to more deforestation and animal deaths.
With 10MJ or 2500 kcal a Man (female or male) can plant atleast 500 jackfruit seeds with a stick (one days work). With a tree survival rate of 25%, 125 trees would survive and in 4 years I would be able to pick at least 4000 kcal worth of fruit per tree (this will increase as the tree develops).
125*4000 = 500 000 kcal harvest for a 2500 kcal expenditure. 497500 kcal net gain. And then if you take 100 seeds for each tree you would have 12 500 seeds to plant out, 12 500/500 = 25, it would take one Man 25 days to plant out these seeds and in 4 years there would be another 3125 trees to pick jacfruit from. You can see now how this kind of natural process is very powerfull for re-food foresting earth. All you need is seeds and a stick to make a small indentation in earth with in which you drop the seed in.
I know planting jackfruit this way is possible since me and Freelee have planted hundreds of jackfruit seeds with a stick with succes in a field that was old lawn and some guinegrass and brachia pasture. Jackfruit will shoot up thugh the grass and will survive the the dry season if the grass around the young seedling is left there for protection (no weeding), no worries and walking with a stick punching holes for seeds will damage an insignificant amount of animals and the water need for this this method would be only the rain from the sky. This planting method can be used for most climates and land, the right plant/s have to be used though, I used jackfruit in this example as jackfruit planting with this method have worked well for us in our tropical monsoon climate.
snowpea
Hey. I was actually just thinking today about the farm you and freelee have set up. I recently purchased land near the rockey mountians USA and plan on starting a farm and building a tiny house on the land. Can't grow tropical stuff, but will definitely be able to grow berries. I'll also build some greenhouses so I can extend the growing season.