# I, Farmer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-farmer/255541>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 17, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-farmer/255541 "2004-07-17T03:54:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-farmer/255541/1 "2004-07-17T03:54:07Z")

</div>

[Robot farmers, just in time to help Uncle Owen with the harvest.](http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news2813.html)

> [@](#):
>
> University of Illinois agricultural engineers have developed several ag robots, one of which actually resembles R2D2, except that it’s square instead of round. The robots are completely autonomous, directing themselves down corn rows, turning at the end and then moving down the next row, said Tony Grift, University of Illinois agricultural engineer.
> 
> The long-term goal, he said, is for these small, inexpensive robots to take on some of the duties now performed by large, expensive farm equipment. As Grift asked, “Who needs 500 horsepower to go through the field when you might as well put a few robots out there that communicate with each other like an army of ants, working the entire field and collecting data?”

So which came first, the robot farmers or the Jawas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-farmer/255541/2 "2004-07-17T04:02:36Z")

</div>

Does that mean that soon enough we´ll have scarecrows with _friggin´_ lasers on their heads? ´cause I always wanted one of those. 😃