[light orchestral music] NARRATOR: It's time for these cows to get milked.

There are about 100 cows on this dairy farm, but only a few humans that work here.

No problem.

Nothing a little laser-guided, hydraulic robotic arm can't help with.

[slow dramatic music] People really don't understand how much technology we've been utilizing for a very long time.

I mean, farming is not easy in any aspect, whether it's dairy or crop farming, but any technology that farmers can utilize, we're definitely in line for making that work when it's feasible.

NARRATOR: Some ingredients you don't eat, but they are essential to the things you do.

Like these guys.

That's right, robots.

[birds chirping] I'm a third generation dairy farmer and we're a completely family-run farm, we've never had any outside help.

[water splashing] Most farms are having labor issues, as all industries right now are having labor issues.

Milking is one of the most, if not the most important job on a dairy farm.

It has to be done on time.

It has to be done correctly and consistently.

And so finding that employee that fits that niche is really hard for farms right now to fill that.

But instead, we decided on robotic employees.

[laughs] We started with robotics in 2017, and it's been a great transition.

[slow soft music] So as the cow enters the milking stall, she's ID'd by the RFID tag in her ear.

The system has her information, so it knows how much milk she's expected to give.

It has a map of her udder, where her teats should be.

So it starts the process of cleaning her teats first, and then it attaches the milking units.

All the while during that, she is also being fed a specialized pellet, which is an important part of her ration that she consumes.

And then when she's completely done, she's sprayed with a protectant for her teats after she's done milking.

And then she exits the stall and it starts all over again with the next cow.

NARRATOR: Tech and food have gone together since our ancient ancestors made stone hand axes.

The discovery of agriculture accelerated the trend, with new technologies letting us make more food with less human labor.

The US produces almost three times as much food, with only 1/4 of the human labor as it did 60 years ago.

Today, just over 1% of American workers work in farming.

If you factor in other food service jobs, the total is about 11%.

In other words, because of technology, one person can increasingly feed many people.

In Oregon, the trend is similar, and even though it takes fewer people to produce more food, those jobs can still be hard to fill.

At least by humans.

We knew that we had to either upgrade our parlor, our traditional milking parlor, or move into robotics.

It's still 365 days a year, but robotics gives us a lot more flexibility in our day.

NARRATOR: Dairies aren't the only food producers in need of help.

Food jobs come in all shapes and sizes.

Agriculture is one of the really labor-intensive and really risky, and in some cases, dangerous operation for us to be involved in.

NARRATOR: From pest control for vineyards and orchards, to picking fruit in the hot sun, to the delicate art of pruning, to potentially deadly jobs like inspecting grain, farm robots could help fewer people produce more food more safely.

I think we can develop machines that can get the people out of these really difficult and risky operations, and also to provide better, safer working environment for those who are involved in farming.

NARRATOR: But we're not there yet.

For example, picking fruit is harder than it looks.

Existing picking robots are able to navigate orchards and find the fruit all on their own.

But the last few inches, the pick, is still difficult to do.

It sounds like a simple thing, but there's actually a very specific way professional pickers pick fruit and they do it in such a way that minimizes the damage to make sure it can store and go to the grocery shelf six months later.

We're focused on how can we train robots to use their hands to pick fruit like people do.

NARRATOR: As robots learn more human-like skills, they'll be more welcome in human environments, where they won't replace us, but rather, work alongside.

A trusty sidekick.

It's a vision you've probably seen in the movies.

[dramatic theatrical music] [digital beeping] In "Star Wars," one thing I love about that movie, it's like, it's a world that where, you know, you have these Jedi knights actually with their helper robots or droids, right, really sort of helping them along the way.

So, the way I do see it, it's the same for our servers.

We pair them up with, you know, our robots and then they're the Jedis and these are their droids that would help them out.

[electronic music] You know, our robots carry from point A to point B, and that's, that's a start.

MAN: Don't hit it, don't, don't.

Oh!

Without hitting each other, as you can see.

[laughs] It has a camera that actually reads all the different QR codes on the ceiling.

And then the LIDAR that use the light to detect objects around it for collision avoidance.

So in a nutshell, that's how it works.

You know basically, it knows where it is and then it knows where it needs to go.

All right.

Last month inside our restaurant, the robots actually, they all combined travel about 60 miles inside the restaurant.

And that's a 60 miles that our servers didn't have to walk around with all the different heavy dishes.

And instead, they focus just on, you know, doing other things that they enjoy, which is actually just, you know, going from table to table, greeting the customers and you know, talking about food.

[upbeat music] And then also, the pandemic has thrown in a very new dynamic with these robots, right?

Social distancing.

So with the robot, you limit that, that sort of human-to-human contact, and it helps out in that way.

[upbeat music] NARRATOR: As robots become a more important ingredient in our food systems, the jobs humans do may change.

Hard and dangerous?

Leave it to the robots.

Subtle and intuitive?

That's us.

And there's one job we'll never want robots to do for us.

The most delicious job of all, eating.

[electronic music]