The latest salvo in farmers' war against weeds: a 10,000 lb. laser weeder robot - Entrepreneur Generations

Photo from Carbon Robotics

Over the years, a farmer’s reliance on herbicides to combat weeds has increased greatly. 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, according to the EPA. Issues such as potential bans on herbicides and the growing number of superweeds have raised scrutiny regarding that reliance," Laurie Bedord reports for Successful Farming. "By creating a 10,000-pound robot with laser power that eradicates weeds, Carbon Robotics is taking on one of agriculture’s biggest challenges."

About the size of a mid-range tractor, the machine uses 20 high-resolution cameras to spot weeds and annihilate them without hurting the crop or soil. It goes about 1-2 miles per hour, and can kill about 100,000 weeds in an hour on crops as high as three feet tall, Bedord reports.

It's currently focusing on weeds for specialty crops such as onions and broccoli, but will likely begin testing on corn, soybeans and wheat in 2022, the company says. 

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/3nteE4Q The latest salvo in farmers' war against weeds: a 10,000 lb. laser weeder robot - Entrepreneur Generations

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