AI Robot Makes Australian Cattle Farming More Sustainable and Efficient

TaiwanPlus News

Scientists from the University of Sydney have created an AI-powered robot to make cattle farming in Australia more efficient and sustainable. "Swagbot" uses sensors and in-built intelligence to maximize herd and pasture health.

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00:00Meet Swagbot, Australia's newest and brightest cattle herder.

00:08The AI-powered robot was created by researchers at the University of Sydney

00:12with the aim of making cattle farming more efficient and sustainable.

00:20The machine autonomously analyses the plant health, type and density of fields

00:25and directs cows to the most nutritious areas.

00:28Once the animals, once the cattle are used to the robot, they will follow the robot around.

00:33And so if you move to certain parts of the pasture, the animals will follow through

00:37and if you stop, then they'll stop and they can graze that particular part.

00:43This avoids overgrazing and preserves the soil's nutrition,

00:47which in turn supports plant health and livestock capacity.

00:50The machine also helps farmers monitor the health of their cattle.

00:54It senses, assessing the animal's movements to create a unique profile for each member of the herd.

01:00These key functions allow farmers to make better use of their resources,

01:04which is increasingly in short supply, to improve productivity and meet global demand.

01:10It allows us to assess our paddocks in real time in a much more detailed way than what you can now,

01:14particularly if they start bringing in real-time measurement of things like nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus.

01:20The population of the world is growing and we have the same amount of land to feed that population

01:27and so maximising how much food we deliver for the same amount of imports,

01:31even less in terms of imports, is what's important.

01:34And the only way we can do that is with precision agriculture.

01:38The precision of the technology also makes cattle farming more environmentally friendly.

01:43So using less chemicals, using less water,

01:46both of those things really lend themselves towards robotics.

01:53Swagbot may prove to be a game changer for a major beef exporter like Australia,

01:57which faces a hot and dry climate.

02:01And it's just the beginning.

02:03Amid a growing trend of robotics being developed for the agriculture industry,

02:07scientists are confident there will soon be more robots like this one on farms in Australia and around the world.

02:13Dolphine Chen and Rosie Grenninger for Taiwan Plus.

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