For centuries, dogs have played a vital role on farms across the world – working with livestock, guarding properties, and in many cases, simply acting as companions for farmers often working in rural isolation.
However, fast forward to the 21st century, and it is now high-tech robotic dogs that are now taking over some of the roles traditionally performed by ‘man’s best friend’.
Although the canines will never be totally replaced, their high-tech versions are starting to take over in some agriculture-related duties including guarding high value crops.
For example, Bayer operates seven crop growing facilities in Hawaii totalling over 8,000ac, which are the source of 90% of the company’s internationally sold feed corn seed.
Due to the nature of the growing systems, and value, the fields are prone to attack by vandals, wildfires, boars, and other hazards.
At first, Bayer relied solely on human security teams to protect employees, intellectual, and physical property on the islands.
However, as you can imagine, maintaining staffing patrols for 8,000ac can be very expensive.
Additionally, the company was finding it difficult to acquire enough staff, particularly for overnight security patrols.
Today, those human patrols are being supplemented by Asylon’s DroneDog robotic security dogs.
Drone dogs
DroneDog is designed to handle dangerous all-terrain environments so security personnel can focus on the most immediate tasks instead of patrolling perimeters or sitting in an idling vehicle all night.
Equipped with thermal and electro-optical cameras with 20X optical zoom, artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) classifiers, cloud connectivity, an expandable payload port, and anti-theft technology, DroneDog is proving to be a highly effective security tool.
The ‘dog’ connects to the cloud for remote operation and live streaming.
It can be monitored by on-site security teams at Bayer, at the Bayer Hawaii Security Operations Centre (HSOC), and in Asylon’s 24/7/365 Robotic Security Operations Centre (RSOC).
Operational staff can instantly be alerted to potential threats on the ground and view them in real-time.
Depending on the nature of the incident, Bayer’s security team can respond to mitigate the threat.
When DroneDog is not on a security mission, it returns to its DogHouse, effectively its kennel, which is installed outside on Bayer’s grounds.
These kennels give the DroneDogs protection from the elements while allowing the units to rapidly recharge its batteries for its next mission.
Expansion
The success of Bayer’s first deployment of DroneDog at one of its Hawaiian facilities prompted the company to expand deployments to other facilities on the islands and in California.
Bayer says that by supplementing human security teams with security robots, it has been able to enhance the monitoring of its facilities with more patrols.
The dogs have also helped reduce staffing issues while improving employee safety, reduced environmental impact by eliminating the number of vehicle patrols required per day, and reduced overall security operational costs.
Additionally, by using DroneDog, the company also now has historic video footage of security incidents for post-event analysis and any necessary court action or security audits in the future.