Alphabet Mineral reveals crop-inspecting robots

Google's parent company, Alphabet, has unveiled prototype robots that can inspect individual plants in a field, to help farmers improve crop yields.

The robot buggies roll through fields on upright pillars, so they can coast over plants without disturbing them.

The goal is to collect huge amounts of data about how crops grow.

Called Project Mineral, it is part of Alphabet's X company, which aims to create world-changing technology from radical "moonshot" ideas.

In a blog post, project lead Elliott Grant said: "We hope that better tools will enable the agriculture industry to transform how food is grown".