One of the biggest problems for farmers is the elimination of weeds, and since it has always been difficult to eliminate them one by one without affecting the plants, farmers have used pesticides as a lesser evil in their crops.
But pesticides are an evil that costs them money, and that damages the land. To give us an idea, 900 million pounds of herbicide are used each year in the USA alone, and worldwide the figure is much higher. Pesticides are a "problem" that should be eliminated from our crops.
And technological alternatives are appearing in the form of robots, which are capable of eliminating weeds without affecting the plants. There are various types, and one of them is manufactured by the Aigen company.
It has a very simple shape so that it can move through the fields, it is powered by solar cells and therefore can work most of the day. You can see it in the photo below
Aigen uses a combination of machine vision and laser technology to identify and remove weeds with pinpoint accuracy. This allows farmers to save time and money, while reducing the environmental impact of traditional weeding methods.
Aigen's operation is relatively simple. The robot is equipped with a camera that scans the ground in front of it. The camera uses computer vision to identify any plants other than the desired crop. Once a weed is identified, Aigen uses a laser to vaporize the leaves of the plant. The laser is so precise that it only damages the weeds, leaving the crop unscathed, and has already been tested for use on more than 40 different crops.
The robot is the size of a golf cart and weighs about 1,000 pounds. It can work up to 5 mph, and the battery lasts about 8 hours. It has the advantage that several robots can be placed to work in the same field, and they interconnect with each other to improve their joint work.
A video can be seen at: https://youtu.be/tGNrOVXd3Es
Robots of this type can save farmers a significant amount of time and money by automating the weeding process. Traditional weeding methods, such as hand weeding or herbicide spraying, can be labor intensive and expensive.
In addition, they are more environmentally friendly than traditional weeding methods, as herbicides can contaminate waterways and damage the ecosystem. Therefore, there are compelling reasons why they are increasingly used by everyone.
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