The future of farming sure seems very autonomous, and Japanese researchers are pushing the envelope to make that future happen.
A Kyoto-based firm called Spread has announced that in two years time, it plans to be running the world's first (almost) completely autonomous and human-free farm.
Robots will control almost every aspect of the farming process, from watering seeds to harvesting the grown crops, according to the announcement, which was made by company executive Koji Morisada.
Of course, while farming will mostly be done by robots, humans will still fill one extremely important role — planting the actual seeds.
Still, cutting the amount of labor that is required by humans could have a significant impact when it comes to the cost of food, and this could be hugely important in developing countries, where a lowered cost of food could mean the difference between one and three meals per day.
Spread hasn't yet released any details about which kinds of robots will be used in the process, nor how much money will be needed to spend on things like energy and maintenance of the robots. Despite this, the system should be much cheaper than traditional farming techniques.
