Jackrabbit in the Spotlight / Building a Robot Every Farmer Can Afford

By Dave Graves

Technology already exists to make robots a farmer’s best friend, but it comes with a cost, and a big price tag. 

James Kemeshi, a doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at South Dakota State University, is doing something about that.  

The base price for a commercial agricultural robot with remote control functions sells for $13,000. Kemeshi, who is studying under assistant professor Young Chang, has built a prototype for under $2,500 in production costs. His ModagRobot was under development for less than a year and is to be made autonomous in the coming school year. 

Kemeshi already is going places with the robot, securing top spots in a couple local competitions and publishing an original research paper in AgriEngineering in March. 

While he expects to eventually profit from his knowledge, Kemeshi said his initial interest for ModagRobot (modular agricultural robot) is the advancement of knowledge. “Hopefully, this influences robot manufacturers. This is a way to tell the industry there is a way they can reduce their costs,” said Kemeshi, whose SDSU experience began in late August 2022. 

Why pay more? 

Of course, a private manufacturer has costs that a grad student working in a lab in the Raven Precision Agriculture Center doesn’t incur, but Kemeshi said great savings can be obtained by using less expensive parts that function equally well. 

For example, on a previous robot which he developed, he tested the performance of a YOLOv8 model using a $110 camera and a $40 camera and found no statistical difference. Likewise, a $60 or $70 brushless direct current motor that is used in hoverboards and electrical bicycles compared favorably to $300-$500 motors found on some commercial robots.