Small Robot Co

Small Robot Company (SRC) was an agritech firm founded in 2017 by Ben Scott-Robinson, Sarra Mander, and Sam Watson Jones, a fourth-generation farmer. The founders aimed to transform farming through a "Farming-as-a-Service" (FaaS) model, using small, autonomous robots instead of heavy tractors to make agriculture more profitable and environmentally sustainable. Scott-Robinson, a digital entrepreneur, was inspired by the idea that robotics' main application could be in farming, an industry he saw as ripe for disruption. Watson Jones brought his direct farming experience and a desire to improve productivity and efficiency in the face of shrinking margins.

The company developed a suite of robots named Tom, Dick, and Harry, managed by an AI platform called Wilma. Tom was a monitoring robot that scanned fields to gather detailed data on every plant. Dick was designed for precision spraying and weeding, and Harry for precision planting. This "Per-Plant Farming" approach was designed to reduce chemical usage by up to 90-95% and costs by up to 60%. The service model involved farmers paying a per-hectare subscription, making the technology accessible without significant capital investment in machinery. The company co-designed its services with farmers and successfully launched a commercial grass weed detection service, a world first, which demonstrated significant savings on herbicides and fertilisers.

Despite its technological achievements and having customers, SRC faced financial difficulties. After a lead investor pulled out in 2023, the company turned to crowdfunding but could not secure the investment required to scale its operations. In February 2024, Small Robot Company entered liquidation, appointing administrators to sell its assets with the hope of preserving the technology and team.

Keywords: agritech, robotics, autonomous farming, Farming-as-a-Service, FaaS, per-plant farming, precision agriculture, sustainable farming, weed detection, automated weeding, crop monitoring, agricultural robotics, soil health, herbicide reduction, fertiliser reduction, farm automation, AI in agriculture, environmental sustainability, robotic farming system, smart farming