An agricultural robot designed to support sustainable farming
2021
Industrial Design
Manufacturing
User Experience
Visualization
Solidworks
Blender
Keyshot
Mike Hansen - Engineering, Industrial Design, User Experience
Josie Suter - Engineering
EarthSense is an agricultural tech startup focused on creating data-driven robotic solutions for today’s biggest agricultural challenges. Today, the need for sustainable agricultural practices is increasingly urgent. Conventional farming has become over reliant on herbicides and fertilizers, resulting in soil erosion, a less diverse microbiome, and water pollution. One promising method of sustainable agriculture are cover crops. Cover crops are planted beside cash crops to slow erosion, control weeds, and return nutrients to the soil. TerraPreta was the first-generation prototype to test if robotics could help accelerate the adoption and increase accessibility of cover cropping to farmers.
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Creating the vision. Engineering and design teams worked hand-in-hand to develop a concept that would survive hostile conditions and display confidence through rugged aesthetics. Each concept was influenced by the onboard technology and mechanical constraints of the machine’s functionality.
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Prototyping. After the engineering team had developed the seed container constraints, rapid prototyping materials such as cardboard and tape were used to test small-scale manufacturability and scale.
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Built and tested. Throughout the prototyping process, the team worked alongside engineering to conduct material testing and develop manufacturing practices for the new robot. 3D printing and plastic sheet bending were the primary processes in developing the final iterations. Each iteration was rapidly developed and tested thoroughly to ensure its compatibility with EarthSense’s technology and durability in outdoor field conditions.
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Paving the road into the future. The first generation of TerraPreta was able to plant more than 100 acres by the end of 2021, with more than 1000 to be planted signed up by farmers globally.
