London Inc. June 2022 - 25

One of those car-sized robots, for
instance, can drive through the field
planting a crop, and then can turn
around and weed the field around the
crop without harming what it just
planted.
" Tedious tasks, " he notes. " That's
what most people are asking for. "
This year, their entire fleet of robots
is being deployed, and they are using
them in a kind of pilot capacity, studying
how they work when implemented
in the real world. What they've found,
he says, is that the robots are a big hit
on small, family-run farms, rather
than big industrial operations where
the automation imperative often seems
the strongest.
The robots, he says, " become like a
third hand to a small farm like that,
and those farms are really struggling
for labour, " he says. " I think the market
garden type farms, where people are
growing a variety of berries and fruits
- I think we're going to see adoption on
those very quickly. "
Baresich is aware that they won't get
there overnight. The internet infrastructure
is still lacking in many rural
areas, and connection latency continues
to be a problem for the industry to
solve. Overcoming these challenges,
he says, could have a huge upside for
Southwestern Ontario. To that end,
he has helped convene a working
group, with the support of the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture, Food and
Rural Affairs, to help guide how this
industry develops both in Ontario and
across the country. He's happy also to
see growth in the advanced manufacturing
sector in the region.
" The two- to three-year plan [for
Haggarty AgRobotics] is to expand the
number of robots, so they're more
commonplace for people to see them, "
Baresich says. " The five-year plan is to
use what we're learning [now] to help
establish an innovation hub here
in Southwestern Ontario, where
research, production and manufacturing
of these robots is happening here.
We see no reason why that shouldn't
happen here. "
KIERAN DELAMONT
JUNE 2022 | londonincmagazine.ca | 25
" I THINK THE MARKET GARDEN TYPE
FARMS, WHERE PEOPLE ARE GROWING
A VARIETY OF BERRIES AND FRUITS - I
THINK WE'RE GOING TO SEE ADOPTION
ON THOSE VERY QUICKLY " -Chuck Baresich
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London Inc. June 2022

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