I kid you not…for some reason this article brought to mind images of that strange dystopian video that came out a few years ago, click here to watch it.
Walmart’s robo-‘applicators’ could work as tireless pollination drones, carrying pollen from one plant to another, verifying successful transfers with a range of sensors. The patent goes through a variety of options as to how a robot bee could go about its business. One notable feature includes a small speaker that will play different tones in order to signal the robots’ arrival at a central docking station.
Among the applications are concepts that use drones to identify and deter pests attacking crops, drones to monitor crop damage, and precision pesticide sprayers. The use of drones in agriculture currently extends to aerial surveys that monitor crop health and automated pesticide spraying. But these solutions tend to rely on a single autonomous vehicle, rather than the kind of smart swarm that Walmart is envisaging.
