Robot Farmer

The Robot Farmer is a Robot added by BuildCraft. It is able to use Hoes to till dirt and grass blocks into farmland (see Usage), which can be used in combination with the Robot Harvester and Robot Planter for an automated farm.

Usage


The Robot automatically tills dirt and grass blocks into farmland.

Setting up the Robot is described below, using the example location shown in Fig. 1.

The following items are needed for the setup:
 * 4 s
 * 1
 * 1
 * 1
 * 1 (or another type of Emerald Gate if special functions needed)
 * 1
 * 1
 * at least one Hoe (any type)
 * 1
 * some and s (amount dependent on the height of the hill)

Step 1: Define Work Zone
The player must demarcate the area in which the robot should till dirt and grass blocks. This is achieved with Land Marks. If the player doesn't define a working area and configured it in Step 3, then the robot will fly to every active chunk around the player and till every Dirt and Grass Block with an exposed surface.

The player must place three Land Marks in a 90° angle which defines the base of the farm. The player can right-click on one of the marks to activate them and display red borders (shown in Fig. 2) which displays the ground area of the work zone. Like shown in the figures, the Land Marks must stand one block deeper, and not on top of the surface, to include the surface blocks.

The two marks on the left and top in the figure may not be more than 64 blocks away from the center mark in the right corner.

Now, the player must build over the central Mark up to the maximum height where Farmland will be built where the fourth Land Marker is placed.

If the player right-clicks on any Land Mark, a red border will appear which frames a 3-dimensional work zone (shown in Fig. 3). If no red border appears, the Land Marks are not standing in a 90° angle to each other.

To till all height levels in the designated area, the Robot Farmer needs a 3-dimensional zone which includes all dirt/grass blocks. If the player uses the 2-dimensional zone, which was defined with the three ground marks, the robot tills only the ground level.

Step 2: Control Station
The control station of the Robot must be built. It can be placed anywhere but it is recommend to place it nearby for easy access. The following described control station is the simplest setup.

The station includes a Chest with a connected Wooden Transport Pipe, as well as a Docking Station and a Emerald AND Gate which can be placed anywhere on the Pipe (without disconnecting the chest).

Place the Lever in front of the Gate and the Hoe in the Chest. The station should look like the example in Fig. 4.

Step 3: Configuration
The Emerald Gate must be configured to control the robot.

Right-click on the Emerald Gate to open up its GUI, which shows two large 4x4 slot fields (one left, one right).

Place all the items as shown in Fig. 5. In the first and third row on the right side is a question mark, signifying that it is missing the required items to finish the logic statement.

Now only the important configurations to control the robot, which are shown in Fig. 5, are explained in the following:

A full explanation of all possible functions can be found in Emerald Gate.

The sequence of rows has does not matter.

Logic statements requiring coordinates are added with the Map Location.
 * 1) Hold the Map Location and right-click on one of the Land Marks to receive the coordinates of the working zone (shown in Fig. 6). The Map Location will have a rectangle written on it. This map must be placed in GUI of the Emerald Gate in the "question slot" in the first row ("Working area" option). The coordinates will remain stored and can the Map Location can be reused for the second coordinates.
 * 2) Hold the Map Location and right-click on the Docking Station to receive the coordinates. Note: Here it is important, which side is indicated for the docking station's coordinates. This is displayed in the player inventory if the cursor is hovered over the Map Location. Check if the specified side is the same as the docking station's (e.g., 'UP if the docking station is on top of the pipe). Put the Map Location in the GUI of the Emerald Gate in the question slot in the third row ("Go to station" option).
 * 3) Place at least 1 any desired hoe in one of the empty slots in the second row on the right side

Now the configuration will appear like Fig. 5 and the control station is configured. The Land Marks and the respective frame are no longer needed and can be removed. If the player wants to reuse the frame for other robots make sure to have the coordinates stored in a Map Location.

Step 4: Start and Stop
For the final step the Robot Farmer is placed on top of the Docking Station (shown in Fig. 7). At first the robot will do nothing because the logic statement in the third row (true when no redstone signal is provided to the Gate) instructs the robot to stay on the Station.

If the Lever in front of the gate is switched on to provide a redstone signal to the gate, the logic statements in the first and the second rows (true when a redstone signal is provided to the Gate) activate.

After a short time (the update time of the robot), the robot will take a Hoe out of the chest (second row in the Emerald Gate) and start the work in the defined zone (first row in the Emerald Gate) (shown in Fig. 8) until there are no blocks that can be tilled into Farmland. Note: Grass is not removed by the robot (shown in Fig. 8).

When the Hoe breaks the Robot will automatically return back to the station. The Robot will take a new Hoe out of the chest (if any are available) and will resume work.

When all blocks are tilled in the defined working area, the robot automatically returns to the control station but will remain active. When a Farmland block is destroyed it will resume work. Work can be stopped anytime by switching the lever (in front of the gate) off. The Robot will automatically return to the Docking Station.

Recharging
If the robot is low on energy, it will seek out a kinesis pipe with a Docking Station to charge itself. If none are available, it will continue working until its battery is fully depleted. The player can also stop the Robot with attacks to prematurely drain its battery, causing the Robot to drop as an item on the ground. Stronger attacks will drain its battery faster. The player can pick up the robot and place it in the Charging Table to recharge it; after that, the robot can be placed on the Docking Station to be used for work.