SwagBot is the world's first robot cowboy, built to roam the rugged Australian terrain. While it will be doing some cowboy work, make no mistake: SwagBot is less like John Wayne and maybe a little more like a hyper-competent herding dog. It can corral cows and pull trailers, doing the type of work needed to be done on a ranch or in a pasture. It can go through swamps, up hills, and over rocks. It's not the first robot to hit the farms of the Australian outback, which are vast, remote and often difficult to access.
Other farmbots, however, take on less active roles than SwagBot does. And SwagBot should only get more sophisticated with time. Upcoming updates could let it identify sick or wounded animals, with thermal and motion imaging sensors detecting changes in body temperature and gait. Livestock is currently only monitored one or twice a year in the Australian outback, meaning a permanent SwagBot presence could mean a great deal in the lives of animals. While currently only in trial mode, researchers leading the trial have told New Scientist that the tests were so successful they're planning on moving towards animal health recognition fairly soon.
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