There are, however, against-the-grainers such as Melissa Brandao, a technology veteran who took the proverbial road less travelled. The 46-year-old founder and chief executive of Ashland, Oregon-based Rogue Rovers is bent on using her business acumen – gleaned at Apple and a global data collection firm, among other stopover points – to develop a fully electric, semi-robotic all-terrain vehicle, or ATV. This machine would not be for joyriding, mind, but for use by specialty farmers. Her slightly anthropomorphised vision? The FarmDogg.

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Given Brandao’s background in personal computing and global data, one might expect such an individual to found a Tesla Motors-rivalling EV startup, But to hear Brandao tell it, she is quite content to help farmers and vineyard operators instead of building a sexy beast to challenge the Model S.

“I saw an opportunity to take my technical background and interest in technology and blend that with my interest in sustainability – move the needle, as it were, toward a more environmentally sound future,” says Brandao. “One of biggest challenges for electric vehicles is that they’re usually applied to consumer-based markets that aren’t as relevant as other markets,” she continues. “This technology is perfect for work applications, things that require repetitive activities, predictable drive cycles and customers with very defined needs and functions.”

Brandao burnished her EV credentials in 2006 when she founded Barefoot Motors, which developed an electric all-terrain vehicle for vineyard work. But the deep economic downturn of 2007 forced her to sell her share of the company. A couple years ago, she says, encouragement from old clients prompted her to go back to the drawing board.

Rather than build something based on the existing ATV, however, she reimagined the concept, leveraging insights gleaned from observing farmers’ challenges around the world. “My international business experience opened my eyes to how useful this type of tool could be,” she says.“It’s kind of like an Ikea product, in that you want to sell that same basic form and function in every market, but make it work for local communities, too.”

“FarmDogg” is an apt name for a machine designed to follow farmers – or ranchers or orchardists, for that matter – and obey their commands. In a form-follows-function moment, Brandao’s pet project is designed for work.

The 550lb (250kg) vehicle measures seven feet long (213cm), four feet wide and slightly more than four feet tall. It features a lightweight plastic body that covers a frame made of square-tube steel, which allows for easy addition of work-tool attachments. Other end-user considerations include an easy-on, easy-off seat, a lower center of gravity to retain stability on inclines and – here’s the computing part – a cloud-based smart-technology platform called DoggBone, which allows data collection and robotic operation, Brandao says.

Commercial ATV users who don’t love the vehicles’ loud engines and bone-rattling vibrations might embrace the FarmDogg’s two whisper-quiet 5kWh hub motors, one in each rear wheel. A 3.2kWh lithium-ion battery pack supplies the power; it can be expanded into a 6.4 kWh pack. Maximum range is about 40 miles (64km), Brandao claims, with a top speed limited to 20mph (32 km/h).

The DoggBone interface would enable the vehicle to follow farmers like a loyal farm dog as they perform routine jobs such as spraying or harvesting crops. In a more advanced mode, the vehicle could be instructed to spray fertilizer on trees at an orchard, but perhaps only on every other tree, for example, Brandao notes.

“You can create other modes of activity: mowing, tilling and snowblowing can all be automated,” she adds. “The robotics technology is there. The problem is there hasn’t been as much focus on applying it toward commercial applications. That makes the FarmDogg more than just a single-operation piece of equipment and helps farmers justify buying one.”

The DoggBone software also collects data, ranging from weather patterns to fertilizer applications to watering cycles – all of which can enable farmers to make better management decisions. “The more data you can collect, the more you can help maximise productivity,” Brandao says.

One FarmDogg prototype has already been built, financed by a $30,000 grant from the Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center (Oregon BEST), a nonprofit group focused on developing green technologies. The prototype will undergo field testing in March. Brandao is actively seeking more investors, and plans to start production later this year.

Meanwhile, Rogue Rovers has also secured a $100,000 federal grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Brazil to develop a FarmDogg for that country’s citrus growers. “Here in the United States, there’s an established market” for for commercial ATVs, Brandao says. “But there’s nothing like this in Brazil for farming. So we’re developing a product that’s modified for the Brazilian market, one that can accommodate different styles of operation and managing operations.

” I see it like a cell phone – it could be expanded into all kinds of wonderful things.”

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