Who wants a robot barn worker?

[LilRanger]

I was reading about robots being developed for harvesting crops, and thought, poo picking could be a good robot job, too. Maybe. I think fed and water could get automated, and I know a lot of bands struggle with finding, keeping and paying for reliable help.

Are robot staff in your barn’s future? If you board, would that be a bonus or problem for you?

I don’t have horses now, but man, having some not shiny help when I did would have been great. Or just an effective doer that the farm sitter could just follow around…

YC-backed Four Growers builds robots to help solve greenhouse labor shortages...

[kaya842]

I recall seeing a poop picking robot (like a roomba) on FB in a video once. IIRC, it would collect the poop and take it to the manure pile. It was slow and small (like one pile at a time) so worked best in a dry lot with the manure pile nearby. Also had to worry about horsey stepping on it. But I love the innovations.

[GraceLikeRain]

Conceptually I love the idea. Theres no replacing horse handling but mucking is both time consuming and physically demanding. It would be a great time save for barns and owners if it ever became reality at a cost that people could afford.

[sascha]

There is no substitute (yet?) for human eyes on piles of poo.

I say yet because I worked in dairy, and robots actually “see” more than humans in some cases.

[LilRanger]

They picked more than poo? What was the weirdest thing mistaken for poo?

[LilRanger]

@GraceLikeRain

Conceptually I love the idea. Theres no replacing horse handling but mucking is both time consuming and physically demanding. It would be a great time save for barns and owners if it ever became reality at a cost that people could afford.

Im here too. I think for a certain size outfit, like 10-20 horses, it would be a game changer. I use that becausenlarger places seem tomhave more people to pick upnthe slack, but that smaller number often has just one or two people, and if one person is out, the other has to do everyhing, and often can’t.

And if you know the stalls get picked if you just go turn out the horses, thats a huge relief.

[endlessclimb]

I think she’s talking health related clues.

[LilRanger]

Oh. I hadnt thought of that. Im sure a robot can take a photo of each pile from each stall, and that can be reviewed.

[LilRanger]

@kaya842

Also had to worry about horsey stepping on it.

I know a few houses who would probably pick one up and chuck it…
I’m thinking more of a humanoid robot, who could work like a human with human tools. Like Artemis or Thor from the ucla robotics lab.

[GraceLikeRain]

@sascha

There is no substitute (yet?) for human eyes on piles of poo.

To me it seems like the middle ground would be that anyone taking a horse out of a stall is doing a basic once over to understand the state of the stall. If everything looks standard, let the robot to its job and then the person can spend more time with the actual horse. I agree that differences in consistency, volume, color, etc are all valuable health indicators that a human needs to monitor.

[trubandloki]

I wonder how you program it to know to not do a stall?
I can only imagine the mess if a horse is on stall rest and the robot goes in and starts cleaning.

[sascha]

@trubandloki

I wonder how you program it to know to not do a stall?
I can only imagine the mess if a horse is on stall rest and the robot goes in and starts cleaning.

This would be just about the simplest part - door closed or stall guard up, stall can’t be done. Door open, go in little robot and do your thing.

[Arelle]

Not exactly the same, but I’ve seen these be huge time savers for horses who tend to be gross in stalls.

https://theshakerusa.com/

[FjordBCRF]

@LilRanger

I think fed and water could get automated, and I know a lot of bands struggle with finding, keeping and paying for reliable help.

Auto waters seem to be pretty good already. I have an auto feeder that is awesome. Granted someone needs to fill the hopper with the meals, but it offers quite a bit of flexibility. I know of people, I think one or two on this board, that have some sort of contraception that they load and set to drop hay at a specific time which is also pretty nifty!

[LilRanger]

That is cool. When I had my horses, it was so stressful taking vacation because I didn’t always have experienced horse sitters.