I’m looking at setting up a Farmbot business and have a few questions:
Is it possible to have Farmbot run in a “one click” like process?
Washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, Amazon, and many others have a “one click” type of system. It’s not really one click but as close as you can get.
In these systems the process is the same:
Select what you want (plants to grow, products to purchase, clothes to wash, etc)
Set any preferences (shipping options, hot or cold wash, etc)
Provide any resources (money, detergent, seeds, etc)
Click Start
Then the machine or service does the rest.
I know a little about plants but not how much they should be watered, what days, etc.
I don’t want to have to worry about that part and not sure I would know how. I want to pick what to plant, load the seeds in and hit start.
I thought this was how FarmBot worked but I saw in the video a calendar with days to water and a lot of other options. I don’t mind learning new things in general but part of the attraction to automation is that if you don’t have time or that option (say for elderly or someone who works all day).
Is the process listed how Farmbot works or is it different? Thanks
FarmBot as a home appliance is the longer term vision of this technology. I imagine a day when the majority of people who have the physical space available will have a FarmBot at home because it is a no-brainer in terms of convenience, health, sustainability, and finances. To get there, the technology must be automated, efficient, affordable, and easy to setup and use even for the non-technical user who has no experience gardening and very little time on their hands.
We have a ways to go before this vision is realized, but we’re working towards it every day. For hardware: we’re working with our supply chain to bring the cost of the device down, and designing things to be easier to assemble and more robust. One day we may offer partially assembled kits so that the installation process only takes an hour or two instead of a whole weekend.
For software: we’re starting with a completely customizable app that allows people to use FarmBot in any way they want (customizable sequences, events, etc), though this comes at the cost of the time to learn things and configure them. Over time we will abstract and automate a lot of this underlying infrastructure so that most FarmBot users do not need to make their own sequences, etc. Instead, they will just do higher level work such as creating the design of their garden. You can imagine a day when users don’t even design the garden, but simply say what vegetables they like and FarmBot figures out the spacing, quantities, layout, etc that is most optimal.
Something we want to always maintain though is the complete customizability. We don’t ever want to lock users into growing things a certain way. So while the underlying infrastructure for customizable sequences, etc may become hidden by default in the app (because most users will not need it), it will always be available in an advanced area of the app for the power users out there.
For data: Right now you need to program (via sequences and regimens) how FarmBot takes care of plants. Eventually we will have this data pre-made for you, and optimized to your specific growing environment. This will take a while to achieve, though we do plan to crowdsource the vast majority of this.