“I’ll stick to my dogs”: Uni tours robot dogs in outback Queensland

A glimpse into what AI and robotics could mean for the future of Australia’s humble working dog has gone viral, however one of the nation’s top working dog trainers says it’ll be a long road until kelpies are put out to pasture.

Picture: Zoe Phillips and Neave Duff.

A glimpse into what AI and robotics could mean for the future of Australia’s humble working dog has gone viral, however one of the nation’s top working dog trainers says it’ll be a long road until kelpies are put out to pasture.

Having trained Australia’s top working dog, Dirranbandi grazier Tom Perkins knows a thing or two about working dogs.

The western Queensland farmer said it was great to see the tech industry put the spotlight on improving the ins and outs of rural Australia, but it wasn’t yet time to retire the humble working dog.

He said when he first saw footage of robots being used to push sheep around a yard, he was intrigued.

“We’ve seen technology improve in the agriculture space across all industries, but I haven’t seen anything in the livestock side of that. It’s dropped behind a bit,” he said.

“So maybe this is one stepping stone to catching up, but you can’t convince me it’s going to replace working dogs, absolutely not, I don’t see that happening.”

For the two weeks of the 2024 Cobber Challenge, Tom Perkins’ loyal pup Bear wore a GPS tracker to measure his speed, distance and duration, in order to get an idea of how much he worked every day.

The future of agriculture was on full display last month with the University of the Sunshine Coast showing off their robot dogs at St George State High School.

The Unitree Go2 quadruped robots that can walk, jump, and shake, have been used to round up small numbers of sheep in cattle yards.

With a top speed of 18 km per hour and a two-hour battery life, the robots successfully mustered the school’s sheep, but students and staff reported they weren’t as “cute” as their furry counterparts.

St George State High School, agriculture, technology and arts head of department Caitlin Crowe said the demonstration showed students what the future of ag could look like.

“We were in contact with the University of the Sunshine Coast, and they brought out robot dogs as part of the youth summit they were running,” she said.

“They brought the dogs to the ag plot and tested them out on livestock, the students were so engaged, they thought it was amazing.

“We talked about what they could study at university showing that agriculture is not just being a farmer, and there’s lot of different roles including engineering and mechatronics.

“We are all about trying to make sure our students are aware of upcoming technologies within agriculture and how technology can be applied within agriculture and this is just another way we can show our students the possibilities.”

Mr Perkins said one reason why he would stick with his dogs, was because they too had great minds that could think for themselves.

“Whereas a remote control robot, you’re in total control, which for some people might be a good thing,” he said.

“But I think, especially in the sheep industry, it’s hard to see how a robot could replace those dogs.

“Especially in the paddock when they’re doing miles and miles and miles.

“And in the yards, it can get pretty physical pushing sheep up, and I just don’t see a robot in that environment, to be honest.”

Mr Perkins said some of the reasons it would be hard for a robot to replace working dogs were price points, rough terrain and interactions with disgruntled livestock.

“The list is endless,” he said.

“For one, I’m assuming, especially with cattle, if the beast took offence to a robot and charged it, I’m sure it probably wouldn’t handle that very well.

“So there’s that side of it… the durability and maintenance side of them.

“They’d be pretty expensive, obviously a good working dog isn’t cheap either, but when you can buy a pup for $200 to $1000, I’d assume a robot costs a fair bit more than that.”

The robots working a small number of sheep in a contained yard. Picture: Neave Duff for ACM Agri

He said although country blokes didn’t talk about it too much, working dogs did provide companionship out bush as well as being an extra pair of hands.

“Often you’re out working alone and having a few dogs around as company can be a good thing, if it’s the right one,” he joked.

“I think we’ve seen a bit of a resurgence in working dogs, I’ve said this before, with staff hard to find people are turning back to dogs.

“One man and a couple of good dogs can probably do the job of what used to be two or three men.

“And I think we’re seeing that play out with higher prices at dog auctions… and more and more popping up.”

Mr Perkins said on a smaller operational scale, like what the online videos depicted, was probably the extent of the bots’ capabilities at the moment.

“On bigger scale operations, helicopters and things like that have filled that void, but where they can, working dogs definitely have a pretty good purpose,” he said.

“There’s always operations and where time is an issue and money isn’t and you can go and pick up a robot and do a job with it, well throw him in, I’m definitely not anti-robot.

“I just don’t see them replacing the working dog.

“That’s just my thoughts – but I’ll stick to my dogs.”

Ms Crowe said the school now had plans to purchase their own robot pups.

“We are an ag school of excellence, so we are looking at going down those innovative pathways, and as a school we are looking at buying those robot dogs,” she said.

“We’d be able to use them in the ag curriculum and also within the digital technologies curriculum. You can code them to respond to voice commands and that can be done though digitech then applied out in the ag plot with our ag students.”

Originally published as “I’ll stick to my dogs”: Uni tours robot dogs in outback Queensland