from the taking-ai-robot-lasers-down-in-the-dirt dept.
The agricultural world is witnessing a remarkable transformation, driven by groundbreaking technology. Among the most fascinating innovations is a farming robot equipped with lasers that can destroy hundreds of thousands of weeds in mere hours. This high-tech solution is not just a marvel of engineering but a timely response to persistent challenges in farming, from labor shortages to the environmental impact of chemical herbicides:
By combining artificial intelligence with precision laser technology, companies like Carbon Robotics are reshaping the way farmers tackle one of agriculture's most labor-intensive tasks. These futuristic machines offer a glimpse into the potential of sustainable farming, where innovation meets efficiency, paving the way for a healthier and more productive future for agriculture.
[...] In the face of persistent agricultural challenges, technology has emerged as a transformative force, with farming robots leading the way. Carbon Robotics' Autonomous Weeder is a standout example of how innovation can revolutionize agriculture. This remarkable machine is designed to address the dual problems of labor shortages and environmental damage caused by conventional weed management practices. By combining artificial intelligence with advanced laser technology, the Autonomous Weeder delivers an unprecedented level of precision and efficiency.
The robot operates with minimal human intervention, scanning rows of crops using 12 high-resolution cameras that detect weeds in real time. Its onboard AI system processes this information, distinguishing weeds from crops with incredible accuracy. Once a weed is identified, carbon dioxide lasers target and destroy it instantly, leaving the surrounding soil undisturbed. This approach eliminates the need for chemical herbicides, reducing environmental harm while preserving soil health. It also alleviates the physical burden of manual weeding, offering farmers a more efficient alternative.
[...] The LaserWeeder is equipped with three times the lasers of the original model, enabling it to kill up to 200,000 weeds per hour. This incredible efficiency makes it one of the most effective weed management tools available. In just one hour, the LaserWeeder can cover two acres of farmland, a feat that would take human laborers days to achieve. [...] This targeted approach not only boosts productivity but also supports healthier, more sustainable farming practices.
(Score: 1) by dustbuster on Tuesday November 26, @07:51PM (10 children)
I'd been keen to read about this laser wielding weed killing robot (what someone actually wants to RTFA?), but none of the various links in the article even give it the slightest mention.
(Score: 5, Informative) by fliptop on Tuesday November 26, @07:56PM (6 children)
Here's the link [themindunleashed.com]. My bad.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 26, @08:48PM (5 children)
I have been thinking for many years now: "This is the way." Optical species recognition, energy (heat) based selection instead of chemicals. Of course, weeds will evolve and start to mimic the crops in appearance, but I think tech can stay ahead of that. Just bring appropriate (typically minimal) water and nutrients along with the weed killing bots and keep the crops growing strongly without a bunch of questionable genetic modifications, chemical doping, etc.
Of course, lasers killing the insect pests is even more entertaining...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by corey on Tuesday November 26, @09:27PM (1 child)
Me too. And the demise of Monsanto’s grip on lowly farmers (now Bayer).
I think there'll always be a limitation to using lasers since it needs to be direct line of sight, to the central point of the weed. But yeah looking keenly at how it progresses.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 26, @09:37PM
Not just lasers, physical cutting and pulling works too, though the maintenance on lasers certainly is easier than knives and pincers in the dirt.
I like the idea of a "mothership" carrying the heavy power and compute resources, then a bunch of lightweight rechargeable semi-autonomous but ultimately remote controlled bots swarm out of it and send back photos for processing / kill orders based on what's seen. There could even be a much smaller swarm of "assist bots" that go out and pick up the little ones that get into trouble, say you've got one mothership cruising every 80 acres or so, 800 mini-bots out doing the dirty work, and maybe 8 to 24 assist bots that are more physically capable which can go out and rescue mini-bots that got stuck, ran low on power, etc. By the time the mothership has deployed all 800 mini-bots, it should have come full circle on the pattern and starts recovering the mini-bots for recharge, cleaning, etc.
Then, when North Korean troops start marching in, the mini-bots can swarm them and cut their Achilles' tendons with their weeding knives...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Wednesday November 27, @06:00AM
Will they, though. Evolution is a slow process. If a weed evolves slightly towards the direction of looking, say, like a lettuce, it will still look enough like a weed, for the laser-wielding
sharkrobot to kill it, so it will be unable to pass its genes to the next generation, for it to evolve further. It would have to spontaneously turn into something that looks like a lettuce, which is highly unlikely. Not to mention, that if it also tastes like a lettuce, it will be a lettuce, and it will no longer be a weed. Then again, it would have to stay in that lettuce field. If its seeds drift to another field, or if farmers rotate their crops, a lettuce in a wheat field is a weed, and theDalekrobot will exterminate it.(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 27, @03:03PM (1 child)
Some kids would propose that a magnifying glass is a less techful solution.
Santa maintains a database and does double verification of it.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 27, @03:21PM
But that requires mosquito food in the loop for the 6 DOF magnifying glass control - lasers are easier to target at a distance for simple 2 DOF aiming control.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Frosty Piss on Tuesday November 26, @11:14PM (1 child)
It's typical Slash/shit that more and more is what Soylent is becoming.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday November 27, @09:08AM
With 25 comments so far. That is not a bad result for our site currently.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 1) by day of the dalek on Wednesday November 27, @08:20PM
They don't want you to know how weak and inferior the robot really is. It should say EXTERMINATE and then just blow up the entire field.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday November 26, @08:01PM
Another story about Robot killers! Oh, the Humanity!
I wish to bow down to our new Robot killer masters. Happy Christmas, Robot killer masters!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Funny) by VLM on Tuesday November 26, @08:26PM (3 children)
Wait until its inevitably hacked "send 0.1 bitcoin to this address or your tulips might get zapped"
(Score: 2) by Ingar on Wednesday November 27, @11:44AM (2 children)
Wait until it breaks down and you need John Deere to replace the laser.
Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27, @04:03PM (1 child)
Why does it even need be attached to a giant truck that costs a million bucks? Stick a laser on a drone and let it loose. What could go wrong?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday November 27, @04:41PM
Put it on the arm of one of those irrigation sprayers and it can zap the weeds before watering the plants which also cuts down somewhat on fire danger.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday November 26, @08:33PM (9 children)
I found a paper from 1965 that plants are black in the far IR so that's probably why they used a CO2 laser instead of something funner-looking like red or blue laser.
https://opg.optica.org/ao/fulltext.cfm?uri=ao-4-1-11&id=13623 [optica.org]
Note that just like using a propane weedburner you don't need to vaporize the plant merely heat it to cooked/wilted/blanched. A robot propane weedburner would be a sight to see.
The main problem with robot ideas like this is the capex and supervisory cost and fire insurance cost is pretty high compared to human labor, or even human tele-operation labor.
I would not want to drive a lawnmower or other outdoor equipment as a job where I live given the questionable weather and clouds of mosquitos etc. However I'd probably pay to play a 'game' on steam about laser zapping weeds, could be fun.
(Score: 4, Touché) by HiThere on Tuesday November 26, @08:46PM (2 children)
After you handle the weeds, the next level is the mosquitoes
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday November 26, @10:59PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday November 27, @07:27AM
There's something amusing about a little robotic AA gun to take out mosquitoes.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 26, @08:52PM (2 children)
>fire insurance cost is pretty high
Not if you're doing your moisture cycles right... fire shouldn't be much of a consideration at all while the crop is in the growth phase, where weed competition matters.
The hope would be that capex drops due to mass production. I really like the idea of lots of little bots getting the job done, instead of giant high capex combines. If you can keep up with 10 microbots per acre, on a nice modest 80 acre corn field that's 800 bots, which hopefully can be redeployed on other crops when the corn isn't needing them.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday November 27, @02:33AM (1 child)
I want a little one for my garden. If I get one week behind in the spring weeding, I have Jurassic Weedpark.
Seems to me if you can OCR "kill everything but the desirable plants", you could OCR the undesirable instead. Frex, go forth and kill only goatheads, mallow, sowthistle, and cheat grass. Here's a picture of each at the first identifiable stage. Don't touch anything else.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 27, @01:13PM
There was(is) the Tertill, it looks exceptionally lame and overpriced to me, I have been waiting for a worthy successor for years...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by aafcac on Tuesday November 26, @08:55PM (2 children)
You don't need to set the weeds on fire, you just need to destroy the waxy outer coating that keeps the water in. Once that's gone, the plant will die relatively quickly the same way most animals will if they lose too much skin. People have been using steam based systems for a while, this doesn't use any water, but probably uses more electricity. It would be interesting to see a comparison about which method is more environmentally friendly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27, @04:06PM (1 child)
It could focus the sunlight into a sharp point. Where's my Nobel prize??
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday November 28, @12:25AM
TBH, that's not a particularly bad idea, although it is somewhat limited in how far away you can be from the weeds and the need for sun.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bussdriver on Tuesday November 26, @08:38PM (2 children)
I had similar ideas decades ago but never did I think lasers would be a good idea to shoot flammable plants... plus you have to wait until things are wet enough. Better to move slower with robot arms than wait weeks for the right conditions to burn weeds faster. Lasers should be used but for zapping insects! That was already figured out almost 2 decades ago too but was wasting money trying to get mosquitoes when stronger lasers should have been used to get the wings of larger flying pests.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27, @12:05AM (1 child)
If the weeds are dry enough to ignite, so is your crop which means that the point is moot. I suppose it could be an issue if things were windy and the laser ignited a previously cut, dead weed; but as a general rule irrigated fields don't easily ignite. The vineyards in California actually make pretty good fire breaks.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday November 27, @02:36AM
Most plants can be identified when they're very small -- just two-leaf seedlings often suffices -- at which stage there really isn't enough litter left behind to notice. By tomorrow it's disappeared into the soil.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26, @09:15PM (1 child)
I've read that RFK Jr is a big fan of eating better and specifically organic foods. Laser weeding fits right in with organic (no chemical herbicides, etc) farming, which might get a big boost if RFK Jr. gets the job he's nominated for.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27, @03:14AM
What the fuck are you, a RFK Jr. ass licker?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Thexalon on Tuesday November 26, @10:10PM
I know people who would be delighted to have access to 200,000 weed plants per hour.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2, Insightful) by pTamok on Tuesday November 26, @10:11PM (2 children)
What will the farm labourers do with all the leisure time they get from not having to do this back-breaking work in the fields?
...and how will they fund their leisure activities?
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Tuesday November 26, @10:15PM
Just to add, quoting from Statista: Annual average number of people employed in the agricultural and nonagricultural labor forces in the United States from 1900 to 1970 [statista.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Dr Spin on Wednesday November 27, @07:51AM
Never mind the workers - what about all the redundant sharks?
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Wednesday November 27, @01:34PM
Why not make this a tel-operated farmville? Train your AI for new crops, run the system on crops poorly suited to current AI!
Disguise it as a game, cross check against multiple other folks to filter trolls, maybe even add evil micro-transactions if you can make it a viral hit.
Or market it as a 'save the planet from pesticides' push.
In fact, shell companies so you can have multiple apparently competing slogans/themes/reasons to play.
That'd help cut off the air supply of any upstart competitors too, so it helps twice!
(I'm not actually sure if this idea is satirical or not now...)
(Score: 1) by cascadingstylesheet on Wednesday November 27, @11:09PM
I remember thinking about this years ago. A robot zapping pests is better than chemicals. Very cool :)