Robots to Weed Your Fields

Weeds are plants that grow naturally and take away the nutrients from the soil. They compete with the plants that you have planted for the limited natural resources in the area. They are the bane of most farmers as they need to be removed carefully from the soil without destroying the legitimate plantation in the region. Weeding is one of the farmer’s most exhaustive tasks.

It can be back breaking work to ensure that a large field is free of weeds at all times. Also spraying herbicides may harm the regular crop and drop it’s yield as well. That’s where the new robotic weeders step in to help with hand weeding and herbicides. Developed by researchers at the University of California, this robot has small blades that can pop up to uproot the weed without damaging the other plants nearby.

Steven Fennimore has been working with the robotic weeder for nearly ten years, and it is now finally ready for commercial application. The robot can tell the difference between a plant and the soil, and is programmed to remove plants that are not part of the original plantation pattern. The robots are still unable to tell the difference between a weed and a legitimate plant, but that’s something for the next science project to take care of.