A photo provided by the University of Illinois shows a TerraSentia robot in a research field in Farmer City, Ill. The robot is designed to generate the most detailed portrait possible of a field, from the size and health of the plants, to the number and quality of ears each corn plant will produce by the end of the season, so that agronomists can breed even better crops in the future. (Institute for Genomic Biology/University of Illinois via The New York Times)