SSP 2025-01/RFx3150006092 Farm -NG Open Source V6 Amiga Flex Alcorn State UniversityLorman, MS 39096

Description

Alcorn State University Notice of Proposed Sole Source Purchase SSP 2025-01 RFx 3150006092 Alcorn State University anticipates purchasing the services/products listed below as a sole source purchase. Anyone objecting to this purchase shall follow the procedures outlined below. 1. Commodity or commodities to be purchased (make, model, description): FARM-NG Open Source V6 Amiga Flex 2. Explanation of the need to be fulfilled by this item(s), how is it unique from all other options, and why it is the only one that can meet the specific needs of the department: The Farm-ng Amiga is a platform that is an essential prerequisite to participate in the Farm Robotics Challenge International Competition. Alcorn can participate in the competition after acquisition of the machine and students will develop on the software and engineer and build hardware on the platform. 3. Name of company/individual selling the item and why that source is the only possible source that can provide the required item(s): Farm-ng provides the only open sourced, agricultural robot platform with 1HP of power and capable of operations such as lift, lower, rotate, and pump while driving in an Autonomous Fashion. 4. Estimated cost of item(s) and an explanation why the amount to be expended is considered reasonable: $22,017. Other machines provide less capability and are not open in architecture. (Clearpath Robotics >$23,000 without sensor or computer hardware & is 1 fixed dimension incapable of operating OVER vegetable crops.) 5. Explanation of the efforts taken by the department to determine this is the only source and the efforts used to obtain the best possible price: Price Comparison and feature comparison. Farm-ng is the only robotic platform of its specific kind. There are no other directly comparable units, however there are a number of companies building similar machines that have features that do not compare directly. Naio, builds several robotic platforms capable of autonomous navigation, however they are significantly different in the following nature. Farm-ng is an Open-sourced platform allowing users to deploy their own code and sensor packages. NAIO restricts users from accessing their operating system. Burro is also a comparable robot in size and cost, however, cannot be physically changed in the manner that Farm-ng can be. The Farm-ng Amiga can be configured to go over the row, be wider or narrow, depending on crop and have sensors deployed based on user needs.