Agri-TechE REAP, 8 November 2022  Small Robot Co (SRC), a British agritech start-up for sustainable farming, today announced the launch of its next generation Tom v4 monitoring robots. This is a major milestone: commercialisation to both farmers and corporates. This comes just five years to the day from SRC's initial unveiling at Agri-TechE REAP 2017. 

Tomv4 is rolling out onto 20 farms in November to deliver SRC's first commercial services for Per Plant Farming. Farmer services are fully subscribed for 2022, with 2023 selling out fast. Services will roll out to a total of around 50 farms throughout the coming year, with additional farm services in Suffolk and Shropshire. A further 100 farmers have signed EOIs for 50,000+ hectares potential future service. Farmers can try out the service on as little as 20ha, without a costly machinery outlay. 

Meanwhile, pending corporate customer trials include nutrient company Mosaic (NYSE: MOS), world-leading research centre James Hutton Institute and leading fresh produce company G's Growers. Five corporate trials are pending for 2022-2023, with a further seven in negotiation.

Sam Watson Jones, co-founder and President, Small Robot Company, comments, "Per Plant Farming will be the most important step forward for farming since the Green Revolution. Our Tom V4 is potentially a key piece of the puzzle to help accelerate this, and commercialisation is a significant milestone. Returning to REAP, it's breathtaking to look back on the progress we've made in only five years." 

Dr Belinda Clarke, Director, Agri-TechE, comments: "The Small Robot Company was profiled in the REAP Start-Up Showcase 5 years ago and it has gone from strength to strength. It has worked closely with farmers to ensure the technology addresses a real-world challenge and it has received an enthusiastic response from the industry."

Commercial trials in corporate Agri-science 

Tom V4's Per Plant data has huge potential for the Corporate Agri-science industry. Tom's capabilities including precisely geolocated per plant data, precise plant counts, and extremely high resolution plant images, with the opportunity for every field to become a trial plot. . Tom V4 delivers a ground sample distance of 0.28mm per pixel, among the highest resolution of any crop-scanning technology. This gives Tom the capability to see individual water droplets on leaves and early signs of disease outbreak. 

Kim Nicholson, VP AgTech and Innovation, Strategy and Growth, The Mosaic Company comments,  "We're really excited about technologies like Small Robot Company. That type of precision and really directed application is probably not possible with our current equipment and technologies today, so exploring technologies like Small Robot Company gives us new ways to tackle that very big problem of how we continue to refine nutrient delivery. We're really hopeful that we can find a way to use the technology to understand when crops are most nutrient deficient, and also help us with very strategically and targeted applications of nutrients, so we really see that as the promise."

Steve Maclaren, Chief Operations Officer, The National Robotarium Heriot-Watt University / University of Edinburgh /James Hutton Institute comments, "The National Robotarium is a global centre for the advancement of Robotics and AI, based at Heriot-Watt University's Edinburgh campus in partnership with The University of Edinburgh. Using our unique synergy of science and engineering, we work with industry partners to co-design and develop solutions to global challenges through the use of robotics, data, and smart technology. We are passionate about the use of robotics and automated systems to help humans do things better. We're excited to facilitate and support the deployment of the new Tomv4 robot at the James Hutton Institute, where their experts in agriculture and technology will test its capabilities to make the future of crop management and farming more sustainable, efficient and productive."