Muddy Machines: The Robot Farming Revolution

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How are robots transforming the way we farm? In the latest episode of The Third Angle podcast, we dive into the world of Muddy Machines and their revolutionary robot, Sprout. Our producer Martha Owen met up with design engineer James Fraser , to talk us through their innovative farming robot, Sprout.?

An Innovative Solution to a Modern Problem

As James was showing us through their impressive robot workshop, he recounts how the company was founded during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

"Muddy Machines was founded by Chris, our CEO... one of the biggest problems farmers are facing was the labor shortage. ," says Fraser. The issue has been exacerbated by the pandemic, Brexit, and even the war in Ukraine, affecting farmers globally who rely on manual labor to harvest their crops. That’s why they developed their flagship farming robot, Sprout!

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Sprout: The Autonomous Farmer

Sprout is a lightweight all-terrain farming robot, currently being tested on asparagus farms in the UK. It has various advanced features such as GPS navigation, a custom tablet and application for control. It even uses AI-driven image recognition so it knows what asparagus looks like.

"One of the most challenging parts of the design has been the part that actually picks and cuts the asparagus. We had to come up with a system that was sharp enough to get through the crop reliably every single time, something that was robust enough that itdidn't need to be replaced very often. We want it to last as long as possible”

Sustainability has ben a key consideration in the design process of Sprout, as James explains:

"We design our robots to be as lightweight as possible. We make our robots 100 percent electric. We also make sure that a lot of the materials that go into our robots are safe, non toxic, and that we can disassemble them again easily at the end of their life. So we try to consider the whole life of the product when we design it."

The Role of Onshape in Muddy Machines' Innovations

To understand the technical side of how Muddy Machines creates these advance farming robots, we spoke to Jon Hirschtick from PTC, who elaborated on how OnShape, PTC’s cloud native product development platform, enabled Muddy Machines in the development and innovation in creating their advanced robotic solution:

“OnShape's branching and merging capabilities have been crucial. this feature has enabled rapid development, especially for complex components like the robotic arm harvesting tool.”

Onshape's reliable cloud infrastructure also guarantees that every change is saved in real time, preventing any loss of progress and letting designers design fearlessly, giving Muddy Machines peace of mind and ensured no work was ever lost.?

More information about PTC’s Onshape HERE.

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About The Third Angle:

Companies that make products the world relies on, rely on PTC and The Third Angle is a podcast series that dives deep into these products, and meets the people being them. Hosted by PTC’s Paul Haimes, we explore the confluence of technology and creativity, and the brilliant minds that make it all possible.

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