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Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

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Re: Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

#361

Post by cryptonector »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #20

I want to see details on power source and energy usage. That's where I'm a bit skeptical. To do the 20 acres they're talking about you'd need one hell of a huge battery, assuming it's electric. Even just to move the thing. Then add power draw for the laser on as well. Also seems odd to have it be something that is self-powered and autonomous rather than just something you pull behind a tractor on the three point hitc…

I don't see why power would be an issue. Why do you even assume there's a huge battery instead of a diesel engine and generator?

Having this thing be autonomous makes it more expensive to acquire, yes, but way cheaper to operate because the labor cost of pulling this thing with a non-autonomous tractor is quite large (even if the tractor were autonomous, having two autonomous robots doing different things is better than having one doing two different things that might halve its availability for each kind of task). This is a very big deal. If labor were a non-issue we'd have people weeding manually and we'd not use herbicides. Everything in farming is about labor, which is why we've gone from being agrarian societies to industrial and post-industrial ones: by bringing economies of scale to agriculture in order to greatly reduce labor costs in agriculture.

Re: Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

#363

Post by OldManAndTheCpp »

riskable wrote: post #147
MayeulC wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you really need AI/CV if you have multispectral or full-spectrum imaging. Different species will have different absorption/emission at multiple wavelength. This makes it easy to identify crops, and seems to be commonly used for aerial imaging[1-3]. That kind of sensor is expensive though, and while you could probably do it for cheap with something like a DLP wheel (edit: or an array of different light e…

> This makes it easy to identify crops ...until they evolve to emit the same spectrum of light as the crops being harvested! Cuz you know that's going to happen.

This is a known process already https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry

Examples of this are Rye and Oats.

Re: Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

#364

Post by frankzander »

ashtonbaker wrote: post #14
frankzander wrote: post #3

Better farming methods and farmers will probably not need such and invention. I think about no drill farming. This "weed problem" comes from a farming not going with but against the nature. So it's thought that technology will solve problems which are no problems if methods to farm are optimized.

I'm all about regenerative agriculture, permaculture, etc. But I've never seen a solution to weeds other than to spend a lot of manual labor removing them. Is there a method that reduces the number of weeds that appear, or reduces the need to remove them? I tend to think that solutions like this offer the possibility of the best of both worlds - automated (and therefore scalable) agriculture without the chemical depe…

You never see one but there is one: cover weeds. Weeds are only grow where the soil is uncovered. In small scale you also can mulch with compost but in large scale you need other ways. One benefit of a covered soil is more moisture in the soil even in dry climates.

Re: Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

#365

Post by ticklemyelmo »

MayeulC wrote: post #177
riskable wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This makes it easy to identify crops ...until they evolve to emit the same spectrum of light as the crops being harvested! Cuz you know that's going to happen.

Well, that's right, and I didn't think of it. But besides what the sibling comments pointed out, that's an issue with any kind of weeding, including manual. The answer is to select according to a wide range of criteria, and not rely on a single one. That way, weeds cannot progressively acquire resistance, and need to check all the boxes at once, which makes it highly unlikely that they will pass on their "slightly be…

This is the part where Monsanto starts engineering crops to fluoresce in a particular frequency of light, so you can target weeds inversely.

Re: Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

#366

Post by frankzander »

kstenerud wrote: post #17
frankzander wrote: post #3

Better farming methods and farmers will probably not need such and invention. I think about no drill farming. This "weed problem" comes from a farming not going with but against the nature. So it's thought that technology will solve problems which are no problems if methods to farm are optimized.

No-till farming still requires weed removal. This robot would potentially eliminate the needs for herbicides.

how come if you cover the soil with cover weeds?

Re: Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

#367

Post by chris_va »

Qworg wrote: post #261
gdubs wrote: post #120

Love seeing advances in this space. I have an 80 acre farm and I’m waiting for an autonomous slope mower. Question about this tech is, does it really kill weeds, or just defoliate them? Like, is this laser strong enough to get down to the roots, which are often very deep with weeds? If not, I’m wondering why lasers instead of something mechanical that can corkscrew down and tear up the entire root?

Depends on the laser(s) and the weeds in question. Deep rooted weeds require different IR/UV than broadleaf. They actually kill them because they cook the root. That's ALSO why it has to be autonomous - it can't be done at a run. We worked on this when I was at MTD, but I think they abandoned the project after I left.

Wouldn't a microwave be easier (power, speed, penetration depth, etc)?

Re: Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

#368

Post by frankzander »

jgwil2 wrote: post #12
frankzander wrote: post #3

Better farming methods and farmers will probably not need such and invention. I think about no drill farming. This "weed problem" comes from a farming not going with but against the nature. So it's thought that technology will solve problems which are no problems if methods to farm are optimized.

Surely there will always be wild plants (weeds) that compete with cultivated plants for sunlight, no?

if you mange the cover weeds than they compete with the unwanted weeds.

Re: Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

#369

Post by nbardy »

hosh wrote: post #307

This sounds like a much more efficient way to practice monocropping, enhance fragility, and capture economic value by increasing dependence on non-local food sources. In other news: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/pacific-northwest-s-...

I'm so tired of these endless orthogonal attacks on technology that is aiming to help the environment. Of course things are perfect. This could reduce the usage of tons of dangerous herbicide.

Go start your own thing instead of lazily smashing others.

Re: Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

#370

Post by jadbox »

arrosenberg wrote: post #341
piyh wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drones do not seem like a logical step for me. I'm not a laser expert, but seems like the energy storage needed to kill hundreds to thousands of something with light is heavier than flying would realistically allow. Wheels and tracks are what farming is built around, no need to literally reinvent the wheel here.

Maybe very small drones with mirrors and cameras and a ground-based robotic tank with a laser cannon.

I love the image of this in my head, but I can imagine in practice that many farms are not on flat terrain where there's direct line of sight [fire] for a central station to flash a lazer pulse. Perhaps if you had many smaller stations with these laser cannons spread about the field and each cannon would coordinate with the drone in the closest line of sight.
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