Company Aims To Simplify Farm Robotics

Company Aims To Simplify Farm Robotics A few years ago, in California’s Central Valley, Suma Reddy and Dominic Milano met to brainstorm ideas for agricultural robotics. They were focused on the practicality of moving materials and crops, but also wanted a level of intelligence, such as the ability to follow a row or a person. “We were talking to growers and had an ‘aha’ conversation,” says Reddy. “A table-grade farmer who was an early adopter of technology told us that six years ago, the types of small robots they needed were $12,500. Now they’re $20,000. If they needed 50, 80 or 100 of these robots to manage their farm, it’s really become a stretch.” Also, many farm robots are difficult to use, require extensive worker training, and are heavy and bulky, often weighing up to 400 lbs. “This farmer told us straight out, ‘Create something simpler.’ As engineers, we like to think about complexity, so we had to rethink our approach.” Ultimately, Reddy (CEO) and Milano (CTO) founded Gather Ag, a company poised to develop a straightforward device that could move material by hitching a wheelbarrow, a small trailer or, in the future, a mower or a lightweight sprayer. “It was the genesis where we decided our ethos was going to be ‘simplicity, simplicity and simplicity,’” Reddy explains. The Gather Ag Rover integrates into farms with minimal setup and training. Simply push a button, and it moves. It has a compact body weighing only 140 lbs. GPS isn’t required, as it uses computer vision to travel up and down rows or follow a person. In the company’s early stages, the robot’s cost is approximately $10,000 to $12,500, but Reddy and Milano are focused on driving down the price. The 3-wheeled device features one swivel wheel for sharp turns in crop rows. It’s powered by two electric motors and a lithium-ion battery, and it’s been tested to run for 8 hrs. with a 250-lb. payload. The 39-in. wide unit is designed to pull loads up to 800 lbs. at an adjustable speed of 1 to 3 mph. Controls are simple: green for go, red for stop. To program the unit to follow a person, stand in front of the robot, wait for it to activate, then press the green button with your foot. When the person stops walking, the robot will stop as well. Gather Ag is also making its prototype available for high school-based farm robotics competitions in 2026, where students build robots from scratch during the school year. “Often, the younger generation of farm workers’ sons and daughters aren’t interested in typical farm work, plus we all know farm ownership is aging,” Reddy says. “These school robotics programs offer a new and exciting way for these young adults to give agriculture a legitimate second look.” Gather Ag is completing its manufacturing process in California and hopes to sell and place up to 100 robots over the next couple of years. “We believe it’s well-suited for small farms and school programs now,” Reddy says. “The next step is building more and advancing the autonomy. We intend to make them more rugged and robust to withstand the rigors of farm terrain and the tasks that come with it. We also want to work in partnership with other universities to combine innovations and technologies that could work in tandem with our base platform.” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Suma Reddy, Gather Ag, Merced, Calif. (suma@gather.ag; www.gather.ag).

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