Future farm technology.

WHAT'S SIX FEET, six inches tall, weighs 370 lbs., walks 3 mph, eats 350 watts, lifts 1,800 lbs., works 24 hours a day, never gets tired and never asks for a pay raise?

Answer: A functionoid. You may not have heard of that name before, since the list of electronic "gee-whiz" words keeps growing faster than our ability to keep up.

A functionoid is just one of many new electro-mechanical devices that may some day soon turn farm machines like tractors, sprayers and cultivators into museum pieces.

The term functionoid is used to classify a whole new generation of mobile robots. Most robots in use today are found in manufacturing applications, where they perform simple repetitive taks in fixed work areas. Functionoids, with their ability to walk through, over and around obstacles and rough terrain, are seen to have a great potential for performing multiple tasks in agricultural environments.

Robotocists have tried for decades to design machines that could walk. Functionoids can not only walk, they can do much more.

Mobile robots can be envisioned performing such work as irrigation, harvesting, cultivating, planting, spraying and field inspection, and as guardians of animal welfare.

Odetics, Inc., of Anaheim, Calif., already has developed a walking functionoid. One company representative estimates that it will be commercially available in mid-1985.

There are several driving forces for the adaptation of mobile robots to agriculture. The foremost reason is economics. Dr. G. W. Krutz of Purdue U. points out that despite worker resistance to automation we are entering a period of reducing production costs and automating processing plants and farms. There are about 1,000 robots in the U.S. auto industry today, and they are earning their keep besides gaining a reputation for productivity. A quality robot that costs $50,000 can work 16 hours a day or more resulting in a $5 per hour cost, compared with $15 per hour, including benefits, for auto workers or $10 per hour for orange pickers.

Today's agricultural labor costs average $4 to $5 per hour. As the equivalent labor costs for robots decline, they could become popular.

Most agricultural machinery moves about on wheels or tracks. This works well when the wheels are tall, but troubles arise when a light machine with small wheels tries to tackle a plowed field, or even a graveled driveway.