Fab Village Meetup
On Saturday, July 14, Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab (SZOIL) hosted a meetup to discuss and generate new ideas and projects for the Fab Village initiative. The workshop focused on the use of AI and robotics to benefit farming in rural areas.
The Fab Village initiative, also known as the “Open Source Village,” is a project which seeks to develop a rural Chinese village in Fujian province using the Fab City ideas of “locally productive and globally connected.” The village, named Yangtou, is over 600 years old and has received little, if any, development as China has rapidly grown.
Yangtou has about 100 households with 80 people still living in the village. The economy is based primarily in agriculture, and many of the young people have left the village to find work in cities. Working with partners Ningde Satellite Big Data, SZOIL plans to retrofit Yangtou with new technologies as part of targeted poverty alleviation with modernized agriculture, revitalizing the village and bringing sustainable development to the residents.
The workshop was hosted by Gabriella Gurney and Ethan Serjak, two interns at SZOIL from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. Gabriella just graduated in Spring ’18 with a degree in Conservation Biology, and Ethan will return to St. Lawrence for one more semester in Fall ’18 before finishing his degree in Economics.
The workshop began with a brief presentation on the background of the Fab Village project and the use of AI and robotics in farming. The Fab Village was originally going to be located in Huizhou, a rural village in Guangdong province, but was moved to Yangtou as Huizhou was too large for the project. Several projects were carried out before the village moved, including the establishment of a lychee festival to attract more tourists and a global design competition held in partnership with the British Council.
The design competition was called “Reimagining the Forgotten Buildings of Xingguang Village.” Out of thirty-two submissions from twelve countries, a winner, three honorable mentions, and a people’s choice award were chosen.
The design competition, creation of a lychee festival, and the testing of a smart beehive which used technology to track bee movement and honey production all took place in Huizhou, and paved the way for the Fab Village project to start in Yangtou. Once the background of the project was provided, the Fab Village Meetup moved into talking about using AI and robotics for rural farming.
AI has huge potential for application in farming, as it can accomplish tasks previously thought only humans could do. Farming robots help to alleviate the workload of farmers while also producing healthier crops for people and the environment. Products which help farmers have already been created in some countries, such as a solar powered automatic robot weeder or a device which can test moisture content in different types of grains. These provided great examples for ways Fab Village can create and implement new types of technology.
Once the presentation was completed, an hour-long discussion began. The discussion was an open brainstorming session to come up with new ideas and projects for AI and robotics in Yangtou.
Many ideas and topics were part of the conversation. Environmental concerns, monetary costs, agricultural robots already in use, and the needs of farmers were all carefully considered and discussed. The group wanted to make sure that farmers could benefit from new technology by emphasizing that the AI and robots would help the farmers live a better, easier life. Making sure the technology was good for people and the environment was also important to the group, and topics like solar powered robots or machines easily updated to avoid technology lock in were mentioned frequently.
Overall, the meetup was a success, with new ideas that can be implemented in Yangtou readily discussed and generated. Working as a group, many great ideas and conversations were had, and everyone was excited about the progress made.
There were many ideas and notes taken at Saturday’s meetup. Some of them can be found below.
Notes from the Fab Village Meetup
Base Questions:
- What are some useful open source AI and robotics projects for rural farming?
- How can AI and robotics best benefit farmers in rural areas without technology lock-in?
- How can we use ecological approaches and the concept permaculture to design and build AI and robotics projects?
- How do we overcome the narrative that AI/robotics will take jobs from farmers?
- What resources are there in Shenzhen that could help build robots in a cost effective and open source way?
Notes and Connections:
- Communicating with village residents is very important. Any AI or robotics projects brought to the village should reflect farmer’s wants and needs. Farmers should be taught how to operate the robots and understand how to update them if necessary, and prices should be kept low.
- Talking with farmers can also help bring youth back to the village, attract new populations by using technology, and preserving an old way of life by supplementing it rather than seeking to change it.
- As the project is still new, before and after status should be documented.
- We can learn from other projects in other countries. Exploring what other people are doing is a great way to crowd source new ideas.
- Mainland China has poor soil quality. Robots which monitor soil quality and water content could be very useful. There is a project which has sponges that can absorb water from the air… can that be used here?
- AI uses could include: temperature monitoring, detecting insects and their eggs, recreating sounds that mimic natural predators to scare away pests
- Composting and aquaponic systems could be utilized to decrease waste and provide natural filtering.
- Productivity can be maintained year-round through greenhouses and seasonal crop rotations.
- Robots will not take jobs, they will improve quality of life and help farmers to increase leisure time, output, and sustainability.
- Growth can be sped up by government support and the use of maker spaces.
