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A project by Ideo Maker

Tech Farming

An experience about farming and technology for KAOS, by the Mustakis Foundation, built around one arm with three interchangeable tools.

A project byIdeo Maker, for the Mustakis Foundation
Year2023
My roleDesign of the experience and the robotic claw
ServicesProduct design · Digital fabrication · 3D printing · Education

This is a project by Ideo Maker, made by its team. Here I show the part I worked on.

Tech Farming

Tech Farming is an educational experience about farming and technology that Ideo Maker developed for KAOS, the Mustakis Foundation's creative space. Participants go through four tables and at each one they do a potato-farming task with a mechanical arm: digging the soil, turning it, planting and watering.

01My role

  • Design of the initial experience, with Elvis Andrade
  • Design of the robotic claw
  • Fabrication with 3D printing and laser cutting
  • Assistant in some of the workshops

Ideo Maker team

  • Vicente Cáceres
  • Elvis Andrade
  • Patricia Ramírez
  • Sebastián Higuera
  • Javiera Matus
The claw, holding a potato.
The claw, holding a potato.

02One arm, three tools

The heart of the experience is a single arm whose tool changes with the task: a shovel for the soil, a claw to pick up and plant the potatoes, and a dropper for watering. The claw is the most mechanically complex piece of the set.

The claw, in the 3D model.
The claw, in the 3D model.
The full arm with the claw.
The full arm with the claw.
The same arm with the dropper.
The same arm with the dropper.
And with the shovel.
And with the shovel.

03The experience

The reference was Overcooked, the video game where a team cooks by splitting up stations. Here the stations are the four farming tables. Each table has six arms, one of each color, and at the end of the route are the planters, arranged by the same colors.

The route: four tables, one farming task at each.
The route: four tables, one farming task at each.
The arms, clamped to the table, before the activity.
The arms, clamped to the table, before the activity.
The KAOS Space, set up for Tech Farming.
The KAOS Space, set up for Tech Farming.
The arm with the shovel, carrying soil to a cup.
The arm with the shovel, carrying soil to a cup.
The dropper in use: it is operated with a syringe.
The dropper in use: it is operated with a syringe.

04How it changed

The first design was made with Elvis Andrade. Then Patricia Ramírez and Sebastián Higuera improved it, and it kept being refined in the workshops themselves, taught by Patricia Ramírez and Javiera Matus. I was an assistant in some of them.