The Bristol-based Small Robot Company has created a series of agile robots for farming. By being customisable they could help to replace the tractor.

Agriculture has a reputation of being stuck in the past. In reality, for farmers, their workplaces are a fertile testbed for innovative technology – they were among the first to embrace commercial drone use, and autonomous vehicles that could work effectively (and safely) in confined areas of farmland. Among the latest developments, Wired says, in agri-tech are small, farming robots that can improve crop yield and reduce farming’s impact on the environment.

Traditional tractors can weigh up to 31 tonnes, and so more compact tractors, or farming robot, will have less of a damaging effect on the land that they works on. However, they are likely not to be as robust and not able to travel as quickly across large swathes of land. Small Robot Company is developing these automatic tractors driven by AI to reduce costs and damages on the fields.