So I have decided to not pursue Fae Bot as a commercial product but as an Open Source project instead. Business reasons first: I am interested in automating farming as much as possible for philosophical reasons. However I think it makes little sense business-wise as a product today. Farmers want to cut down costs and want yield increases. The strong … Read More
The Birth of Fae Bot
When I moved to the Japanese countryside I had a discussion with one of the Hackerfarm founders, Chris Harrington, who also happened to be a rice farmer. He explained to me that, here in the countryside, the rice fields are basically free: people would give them away if you promised to grow things in them, or at least maintain them, … Read More
The Idea Becomes a Project
Finally, after years of talking, prototyping, pondering and pulling it off because of other projects, I got to start a serious wirebot project! The goal is to make a prototype that works and that is manufacturable. I will then try to develop applications for it and find a market to sell it to. Two friends are helping me there. Suzanne, … Read More
Why Did We Name the Robot “Fae?”
We chose the name FAE as an acronym for Farming Automation Experiment, as agriculture is the first application planned for the bot. But we also chose Fae because of its fairy connotations: the Fae Bot looks as if it is flying to bring you the tools you need out of the air in a 3D space that can help … Read More
The Birth of the FAE Bot
It is 2018, and too many repetitive tasks are still conducted by humans. I don’t understand why growing food is not 100% automated by now. Or rather, I understand it, but this is perhaps more of a political discussion. What is interesting is that this possibility has been put on hold for so long that we have now reached the … Read More