A HI-TECH business in Cornwall is experimenting with robot dogs to see how they could help farmers. 

Robotriks is exploring how environmental sensors could be mounted on mobile robots, including robot dogs and tracked vehicles, to scan land. 

The Par-based firm says the sensors on the robot dogs and vehicles could help identify patterns relating to soil condition, crop health, chemical presence and gaseous emissions. 

The business is in the final stages of testing its system which also uses stationary equipment and is preparing to deploy the technology that could give farmers and land managers a far more detailed picture of environmental conditions across their sites. 

The technology aims to collect information that may be missed by satellite imagery and conventional sampling. Robotriks is developing the system for use in environmental monitoring, land management and agricultural innovation. 

Jake Shaw-Sutton, director of Robotriks and lecturer in applied robotics at the University of Plymouth, said: “The work we are developing is about gathering better information from the environment and making that information more useful for the people responsible for managing land.  

“Satellite data and traditional sampling methods can give a broad picture, but they can miss important detail. Our aim is to use mobile robotics and sensors to create much higher-resolution environmental maps.” 

One project, delivered in partnership with Secure Forests, which runs land management and wildlife conservation programmes at Mount Edgcumbe in South East Cornwall, has been funded by Innovate UK through TechLocal, a government technology programme. 

Cornwall-based broadband provider Wildanet is helping Robotriks complete the final testing phase by enabling the business to move detailed sensor readings, design files and project data rapidly between its workshop, home office and project partners. 

Simon Hughes, chief commercial officer at Wildanet, said: “Robotriks is a powerful example of the great innovation being developed here in Cornwall.”