Afara Agricultural Technologies Inc., a Turkish robotics company, has unveiled an innovative solution to address the perennial problem of wasted cotton left behind after mechanical harvesting – the AFARA-COTTON autonomous mobile robot.

According to Afara, between 5-20% of annual cotton yields are lost each year, either unpicked by machine harvesters or dropped on the ground during the harvesting process. This wasted cotton represents a significant financial loss for farmers. Traditionally, any remaining cotton had to be gathered by hand, an arduous and labor-intensive task.

The AFARA-COTTON aims to eliminate this waste and recover these valuable cotton resources autonomously. The all-electric, self-driving platform uses cameras, lidar, and ultrasonic sensors to scan the ground, identify scattered cotton, and deploy suction cups to vacuum it up into an onboard collection area.

"After the machines go through, there's always cotton left behind that gets plowed under or just sits there until the next season," said Ömer Muratlı, the computer engineer who invented the original Afara agricultural robot in 2019. "My family are cotton farmers, and they challenged me to create something to pick up that wasted cotton."

Muratlı's initial invention was patented, and after a successful crowdfunding round, Afara Agricultural Technologies was established in 2023 to bring the robot to production. The current AFARA-COTTON prototype can collect cotton from two rows simultaneously at speeds up to 3.2 kph (2 mph). It can operate for 6 hours on a single charge and hold up to 200 kg (440 lbs) of cotton before needing to be emptied.

While the operator currently needs to manually reposition the robot at the end of each row, Afara says they are working on enabling full autonomy. The startup is aiming for a 90% efficiency rate in retrieving leftover cotton.

The two-row AFARA-COTTON model will be available for purchase soon in Turkey and select European markets at a price point of €120,000-130,000 ($131,000-142,000 USD). Afara is also developing automation technologies for other cotton farming processes like seeding, irrigation, pest control, and weeding.

The emergence of robotics solutions like AFARA-COTTON could help drive significant productivity and sustainability gains in agriculture by reducing crop losses and recovery labor costs. As the growing global population strains food supplies, innovations in agricultural technology will only increase in importance.