World’s first weed killing robot wields lasers

One of the major problems with modern agriculture is the amount of herbicide that is used in controlling weeds in crop fields. From 2012 to 2016, about 281 million pounds of glyphosate, an active ingredient in most herbicides, were applied to 298 million acres annually in the United States alone, according to the EPA. Issues such as potential bans on herbicides and the growing number of superweeds have raised scrutiny regarding that reliance. 

Seattle-based Carbon Robotics says, however, it has the answer. By creating a 10,000-pound autonomous robot with laser power which eradicates weeds, Carbon Robotics is taking on one of agriculture’s biggest challenges.

Unlike other weeding technologies, the robots utilize high-power lasers to eradicate weeds through thermal energy, without disturbing the soil. The automated robots allow farmers to use less herbicides and reduce labour to remove unwanted plants while improving the reliability and predictability of costs, crop yield and more, says the company.

“We experimented with several different types of weed control,” Paul Mikesell, CEO and founder of the Seattle company, told Successful Farmer. “We decided early on that with certain wavelengths of output, lasers were the most effective solution.”

The Autonomous LaserWeeder is equipped with 20 high-resolution cameras that scan a field in real time; 16 of the cameras are used for weeding functions. Imagery is fed to an onboard computer than runs computer vision models to identify crops vs. weeds. High-powered lasers, which are ready to fire every 50 milliseconds, then kill weeds at the meristem, without harming the crop or disturbing the soil. 

According to Mikesell, the typical speed for weed control is between 1 and 2 mph, depending on weed density. On average, the LaserWeeder can kill 100,000 weeds per hour.

Similar in size to a midrange tractor, the LaserWeeder is powered by a 74-hp. Cummins diesel engine. It has an 80-inch track width that can accommodate one 80-inch or two 40-inch rows. In addition, its height allows it to weed crops up to 3 feet high. 

The start-up is currently focusing on weeds, including nutsedge, lambsquarter, purslane, and mallow, in specialty crops such as broccoli and onions.

The company claims it has demonstrated an 80 percent reduction in weed control costs. Mikesell says if you apply the dollar value saved in lower weeding costs to the price of the LaserWeeder, a farmer can expect to see a return on investment in three years or less.

Consumer-protection and health groups have long warned about the safety of chemicals and pesticides used in agriculture, in particular glyphosate which is the key ingredient in the world’s most used herbicide, Roundup.

But, according to The New York Times, alarms about a cancer link with Roundup exploded in 2015, when the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, reviewed public studies and concluded that glyphosate can “probably” cause cancer.

The chemical was introduced to commercial agriculture in 1974. But the Roundup revolution took off in 1996, when Monsanto started selling genetically modified seeds that produced crops resistant to the herbicide’s attack on weeds.

If Carbon Robotics weed killer works as good as the company says it does and if it can be used for types of crops, this could be a real game changer.

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