Here is my YC prototype for Rowve: Robotic Weed Control as a Service Started 3 weeks ago: Interviewed 5 farmers Secured 3 letters of interest Toured 2 fields Built 1st prototype last week Seeking cofounders with experience in mechanical engineering and autonomous navigation

Nice bot. I'm an hour from SF (at 3am) and been looking for an extrovert to team up with. Also got big plans to improve ag with AI robots. If you're open to switch out the sprayer for a laser (I got a laser), then I'm open to chat about it.

Hey we should find some time to chat! I'll send you a DM

Congrats! Most large-scale weed-control robots are designed to move between crop rows without damaging plants. This is a solid prototype, but a bean field could be much tougher. A taller design with a smaller contact area might work better.

Yeah, I was actually thinking potentially an adjustable-height arm of some kind!

I know a robotics builder with hands-on ROS, autonomous navigation, SLAM, obstacle avoidance, and embedded-controls experience. They’re building in outdoor robotics too. Want an intro?

Yes please!

perfect, dm me and i'll connect you

done!

perfect, i’ll pick it up in dms 🤝

I need a Rover base like this but I need an arm that will pick up at least a red brick off the ground and put it in its own little cargo area carry like 10 breaks at a time taking somewhere else and unload it

Honestly check out @goBILDA!

This is really cool bro but they already do this with lasers and GPS tracking machines that operate automattically accordingly to the mapped field. Massively respect the hustle and a seriously cool product but thought i'd let you know you might be inventing something that already exists

Oh yes I am certainly aware. Competitors include Carbon Robotics, Ecorobotix, Naïo, and FarmDroid. Most either sell tractor-scale systems or smaller robots that growers must purchase, operate, and maintain. Rowve is building much smaller, vision-guided rovers for narrow rows, irregular plantings, small fields, and high tunnels, and will provide them as a service rather than sell them. Growers I interviewed preferred this model because it removes upfront cost and technical risk and matches how they already hire seasonal weeding crews. Our insight is that smaller specialty farms need both a machine that physically fits their fields and a business model that sells the outcome: weeds removed, not a robot to manage.

This response made me bullish on you

Thanks man, as a veteran founder, I've learned (the hard way) about what it takes to build a business that is actually feasible

You've also just got an awesome attitude and despite clearly knowing a lot more about the subject matter than me, you didn't talk down to me or get defensive - just explained the facts. Huge W

Its genuinely just great to have so many people interested in this project!

@joshu ^^^ hey a robit.

@joshu Robits are cool 😎 Even though this initial prototype is relatively simple, I'm excited to be deploying to the field!

@joshu It looks awesome man

so sick!

haha thanks man, given how fast I was able to build it I'm pretty happy with how the prototype turned out!

nice! use lasers instead of poisoning the soil around the food 🤝

Very nice, I need an apple picker that hangs on trees like a giant sloth

haha that will have to be the next use case

this is how real startups look early, talking to users first and building around actual problems 🔥

Yep! I spent 2 weeks talking to farmers before I even started to design the prototype

@10_X_eng

@10_X_eng haha I love @10_X_eng's content!

@10_X_eng He helps bring the robot makers together

Let’s go bro! Love to see you moving on this so fast! Super bullish.

Speed is everything in this game 🏎️💨

Congratulations, and wishing you further progress. You are healing the planet before building your business. Agriculture is a field where few dare to work, which is the reason for the labor shortage and what creates the opportunity for innovators like you to step in. Good luck, and I am sure your project will reach those who think with proactive intelligence and that you will reach the big leagues. I have also designed a strategic brand for this sector, for drones, and for defense technology featuring programmable swarm drones and their defenses:

good start! looks promising 🙌

Let's hope so! Its early, but I figure its the right time to start networking

@KuphDev check this out

I love what @reservoirfarms is doing!!

This is so freaking cool

haha thanks man! Its pretty rough, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out given the tight deadline!

I'm excited for you bro, good luck! Farmers need all the support in the world 👩‍🌾

Thank you! Yeah all the farmers I have talked to seem very excited. Organic farmers are really struggling right now due to lack of labor in the countryside.

🔥

robotmaxxing

congrats mate

Thanks! This is only just the beginning, but I'm pretty happy with what I was able to build in a week!

Rooting for you mate

🙏🙏

Banger video and demo

@Tunnl_io Honestly its been great for me just to learn what its like to be a creator first hand

Good use case for robots, wishing you the best !

Yes indeed! Especially with the shortage of rural labor for farms right now in the US

@GEODNET Help this guy out with the RTK. He’s building something cool.

@GEODNET I am interested 👀

Yoo, happy to see X people appreciate your stuff, LinkedIn people aretoo boring

@ceaser_mikes Haha thanks It seems the better my posts do here the worse they do on LinkedIn and tbh, I'm kinda proud of that 😆

same Robo arm you tested live? top level i see you doing great things 👏👏

Yep! Going from picking up ducks to killing weeds ❌🌱

looks amazing. congrats man.

Thanks man! Its still pretty bare bones, but I'm happy with what I was able to build in just a few days!

this is awesome stuff

heck yeah man, thanks for the support!

You let your intrusive thoughts win kuphdev. I love that for you. keep pushing.

haha yeahhhh I spend more time doing than thinking, but that certainly has its benefits!

Spray application definitely seems pragmatics, but is it really the future? Seems like a mounted laser would be just as effective and shed the burden of lugging around enough chemicals to spray a field.

I agree. That's exactly why we are designing for other tools in the future, while focusing on spraying as the fastest path to the field

love it. I like these bots with SO arms extensions

Yeah, although I'd love to swap it out for a ReBot arm!

should be more precise but also heavier. What motors have you used for powering the track?

Right now just some 12v DC motors, but they could easily handle 50+ volts and I could gear them way down. Right now the rover can carry up to 30-40 lbs, but my goal would be to make it carry up to 100lbs, which is very achievable

This is super cool 👏🏾 👏🏾 😎 idolo 🔥❤️

Thanks! It is very rough still, but I'm pretty happy with what I was able to ship in a week!

I'm proud of it too. Shipping something in just a week is impressive. It already looks promising, and I'm excited to see how it evolves

This is awesome, best of luck!

Thank you! It's a long shot given how early it is, but my goal is to keep making content, networking, and getting 1-2 cofounders

Its a great idea, here in Scotland I can see this even being used on gardens as weed growth is a problem. For vision on the arm, 2 cheap global shutter cameras with overlapping views should help with accurate depth detection if you didn't want to spend a fortune on dual lens AI camera rigs. If detection latency isn't critical, cloud inference would save you a lot of on-board cost. Looking forward to seeing your product develop!

Yeah I have been thinking about an architecture where the expensive compute is mounted to a central truck, then fleet operators deploy the robots for a day in a farmer's field which uses extended range WiFi to send camera data to the truck for processing as they stand by. That reduces cost while allowing the system to operate in remote fields without wireless internet. This might be more reliable than StarLink.

Remote connectivity is its own challenge. Starlink is a good answer for areas that are not built up. Extended WiFi can have connectivity issues through terrain and crop (or buildings in my case). Onboard LTE connectivity is how we're solving it which remains affordable with hardware video encoding and IoT SIM packages. But YMMV. One argument for onboard compute is providing the robot autonomy if and when you do lose connection. You already have pilots in the field which should help iron these issues out.

I was also interested in potentially creating a mesh network between rovers to address connectivity issues. Since operators will deploy fields of robots on each farm, work for the day, then load them up to move to the next farm, we should be able to have fleets of 5-10 rovers and none of them should be that far apart from each other in the field.

I see where this is going Come see this @yacineMTB

@yacineMTB Haha if @yacineMTB saw this, that would be GOATed 😆

nice rover! 🫡 let’s eradicate these nasty chemicals 🤢

Thank you! This is exactly how we can use tech to make a positive impact in the world 🙏

🤖🦾

Lfg! Massively appreciate the support man 🤝

How much was the build all in?

Just under $2K if you include the robot arm from the previous project too

Woah you're cooking

Gotta move fast to compete for a YC slot 💨

very nice also those longboards look cool in the beginning

Oh yeah those things are super fun. Check them out!

fuck yeah. i used to ride one a lot back in high school/college but never tried an electric looks fun as hell

Oh yeah man they are dope. Probably the most fun form of transportation there is!

we had some crazy hills in a couple neighborhoods here that we would ride. it’s a miracle i never got a serious injury riding on flatter ground with electric sounds a bit more chill these days. i may have to get one

honestly the breaking is one of the best features. No one wants to have to board-slide every time they have to slow down 😆

lmao yeah man, the wobbles can be terrifying too 😂 i had gloves to slide with for a while but was never really that good with them

I used to do parking garages in Minneapolis. Take the elevators to the top and slide all the way down 🤙