Today, Small Robot Company of Shropshire, the agritech start-up, launches a campaign for funds on Indiegogo.

Money raised will be spent on Harry (pictured)  – the company’s digital planting robot. The Company is looking forv £50,000 backing to commercialise Harry.

Harry recently won a Horizontal Innovation Award from the IETvand the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC) to develop the prototype technology.

Additional funding is needed to accelerate development in order to hold commercial trials this growing season in October 2018.

Harry will accurately place seed individually in the ground at a uniform depth to within 2cm accuracy, creating a plant level map showing the location of each seed. By punch-planting rather than ploughing, Harry will also radically reduce soil run off and associated water pollution.

Small Robot Company’s robots work alongside AI ‘nervous system’ Wilma to ‘digitise the field’ and provide a granular digital view of the farm. The robots will only feed and spray the plants that need it, giving them the perfect levels nutrients and support, with no waste. This will minimise chemical usage in farming by up to 95%.

Its precision farming technology allows a level of autonomy, accuracy and detail that now makes it possible to provide precise care on a per plant basis, and for 10x better decision making.

It will take in the sum of all farming knowledge, including agronomy, soil science and market conditions, coupled with aggregated big data from all farms across the country, and apply it to the information gathered about the crop.

Eventually, each process – from knowing when to plant, to all aspects of crop care, to knowing when to harvest – will be automated.