SwarmFarm Robotics opens workshop at Wellcamp Business Park near Toowoomba

A pioneering tech company has taken over part of the former Wellcamp Quarantine Facility and is churning out the next generation of autonomous farm robots that promises to help growers save money and protect the environment.

Caglar Akoglu of SwarmFarm Robotics at Wellcamp Business Park. Picture: Kevin Farmer

In a shed that was once part of Wellcamp Quarantine Facility, dozens of engineers and software developers are hard at work building the next generation of autonomous farm robots.

With folksy names like ‘Robbie’ and ‘Bottomley Potts’, the SwarmFarm robots are simple, modular designs, but are set to revolutionise agriculture in the coming decades.

They have four wheels and a solid, bright orange frame that supports a large ‘brain’ installed on top.

A network of cameras and sensors drive the platform that can be fitted with a range of farming components from fertiliser and herbicide sprayers, mechanical tilling, trashers or even an experimental microwave device that detects and kills individual weeds.

Already there are hundreds of SwarmFarm robots labouring in paddocks across Australia, in broad acre farming and commercial orchards.

That number will only grow now after the Queensland business established its manufacturing hub in the Darling Downs at the end of 2024.

SwarmFarm staff Caglar Akoglu (left) and Chris Cass test a robot at the manufacturers workshop at the Wellcamp Business Park. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“Manufacturing to Toowoomba made sense for a number of reasons,” founder Andrew Bate said.

“We have lots of customers in the Darling Downs and it was a place where we’ve had really good early adoption.

“It was good for logistics and our supply chain because there are a lot of support businesses that we work with nearby.

“We also have access to a lot of skilled labour.”

Caglar Akoglu of SwarmFarm Robotics at Wellcamp Business Park, Thursday, February 13, 2025. Picture: Kevin Farmer

SwarmFarm Robotics is on a hiring blitz and is looking for workers with backgrounds in mechatronic engineering, software design and manufacturing.

About a third of those jobs will be needed at the Toowoomba site while the others will be located at the company’s research and developments sites, in Emerald and Harden.

The Australian government has seen the benefit in autonomous farm robots and has funded the company to the tune of $1.1m through its Business Research and Innovation Initiative grant.

In the first week of February 2025, SwarmFarm 84 robot logged – 5,000 engine hours and covered 40,000 hectares covered on farms from Perth or the Darling Downs.

Farm robotics is a space that an increasing number of companies are experimenting in.

The Australian Centre for Robotics has developed SwagBot, a custom robot that works with livestock, and RIPPA, a robot that tends to vegetables and fruit.

BunkBot is a four-wheel robot that helps care for cattle at Mort & Co’s Pine Grove feedlot near Millmerran.

Mr Bate said his company was dedicated to empowering farmers to take ownership of the robots and has designed them with a Right to Repair ethos as a guiding principle.

“Farmers should be able to maintain and repair their own equipment if they chose to,” he said.

“The robots are modular and most parts can be replaced in an hour, including the hydraulic pumps or the computers, whereas with a modern tractor those repairs could take several days.”

Andrew Bate, SwarmFarm founder.

This idea of small, simple design flies in the face of traditional farming practices that favour size over simplicity.

“For the past 50 years of farm we have got really efficiency by getting large – larger tractors, larger sprayers, larger planters, you bought bigger equipment and more land – you expanded the business and grew that way,” Mr Bate said.

“It was about how much work a farmer could do in a day.

“But when you go autonomous, it is not about having a big machine anymore, you can make the machine smaller and run them 24-hours a day.”

Along with reducing a farmer’s workload, the robots also bring clear environmental benefits.

They are lightweight and don’t compact the soil as much as a large tractor would, but they are able to pinpoint distribution of herbicides, reducing chemical use by up to 98 per cent.

“There is a desire out there to look after our soils better, and smaller machinery does that,” Mr Bate said.

“The only reason we went big was to save labour and with robots we already have the labour saving device.”