SwagBot aims to revolutionize cattle farming

With four wheels and a bright red paint job, SwagBot is not your average cow.

Researchers at the University of Sydney hope this autonomous robot will become the world's first smart cow, able to make cattle farming more efficient and environmentally friendly.

First launched in 2016, what was initially a simple herding robot capable of traversing rugged terrain has been updated with sensors, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning systems.

SwagBot can determine the health, type and density of pasture, and monitor the health of livestock. It uses this data to autonomously herd cattle to the best pastures and move them before land is overgrazed and soil becomes degraded.

Australia is one of the world's biggest beef exporters, with around 30 million cattle spread across a vast landscape that is often dry and whose pastures can be poor.

University of Sydney Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Salah Sukkarieh, saying: "You know the population of the world is growing and we have the same amount of land to feed that population and so maximising how much food we deliver for the same amount of inputs, even less in terms of the inputs, is most important and the only way we can do that is precision agriculture and doing that on such large scales needs robotics and so that’s, from a technology perspective, that’s the processes that are happening now."

Farmers constantly assess how many animals their land can support but many have little control over where the animals graze within large enclosed areas. Overgrazing can lead to poorer soils that support less plant and animal life.  

Swagbot is part of a growing trend of robots being developed for the agriculture industry, as farmers look for innovative ways to meet this increasing demand for sustainable and efficient farming practices amid labour shortages and environmental concerns.

Sukkarieh believes that robotics and automation could be the solution to these challenges and is confident that the future will see robots on farms across the country.