The year is 2062 and you find yourself in the supermarket to buy a Fermi for your home farm. 'Fermi' is a speculative design project which reimagines a FarmBot(CNC based robot) as a vulnerable machine which 'ages'. Dwelling around concepts which challenge the current establishment of robots in the world and the commercial and industrial markets, Fermi takes a stand which borders on Fiction design. Using a series of illustrations & visuals, it describes a vulnerable farming robot which is imagined to exist as a highly commercial product which can be bought as easily as a packet of chips. Once installed, the Fermi fetuses are watered and 'grown' by the users. As a Fermi matures, they learn from the older generations of Fermi bots working in the farm, eventually start living in the soil and begin farming. In their leisure time you might find Fermi bots sniffing the flowers/fruits. Extremely protective of the result of their hard-work, these farm bots also secrete a gelatinous outer- growth over their soft robotic build. Rich in fertilisers and pesticides, this secretion also makes the Fermi a rugged dirt ridden part of the flora fauna it works along with. Although this functionality is a boon for the soil; takes a toll on the mobility of Fermi and eventually results in the death of the robot.

 

Hence, Fermi, with its almost dramatic and 'life - sacrificial' characteristics, is a thought experiment which challenges the pre existing notions and relationship dynamics between a robot and human.