What will they think of next?
Carbon Robotics, a Seattle-based company, has developed a machine that is now being deployed across the country that uses laser and AI technology to target and kill weeds in farmers’ fields.
Fox Business reported the company’s LaserWeeder can eliminate 200,000 weeds per hour at an 80 percent cost savings to traditional weed control methods.
Carbon Robotics CEO and founder Paul Mikesell “knows farmers and has a lot of friends who are farmers,” so he decided to use his background in AI and computer science to help with the challenging, time-consuming problem of weed control.
“We grow a fair amount of vegetables up here between Washington, California, Oregon and Idaho,” Mikesell said.
The LaserWeeder is 20 feet wide and consists of 30 lasers at work as a tractor pulls the unit across fields, destroying weeds “with millimeter accuracy, skipping the plant and killing the weed,” he said.
The LaserWeeder “does the equivalent work of about 70 people,” Mikesell said.
WDIV-TV reported that though Carbon Robotics is based in Seattle, its LaserWeeders are actually built in Detroit.
They cost $1.2 million each, but farmers say the machines will pay for themselves within a year.
“This machine has got more computing power than 24 Teslas. It’s essentially a mobile data center,” Mikesell said, according to the news outlet.
AI based laser based pesticide and herbicide.
No chemicals.
Meet Ironman… pic.twitter.com/F2f0fp9728
— Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) July 6, 2023
Meanwhile to the north, in Canada, a Saskatchewan-based company called Precision AI has developed a drone that identifies and kills weeds with herbicides and pesticides without drenching the whole crop, Bloomberg reported.
“For decades, big-acre crops like corn and wheat have been treated by spraying tractors that would move across vast farmlands, unleashing waterfalls of herbicide from long arms stretched above the crops, all to zap weeds that are often tiny and scattered about,” the news outlet said.
But with the drone, “AI identifies weeds with 96% accuracy, spraying the intended target alone.”
Precision AI says it can reduce herbicide use by up to 90 percent compared to traditional methods.
The startup company plans to commercialize its spraying service next year.
The result of using either of these technologies will be healthier food and less polluted soil.
While some potential uses of AI are scary, its employment in agriculture certainly appears to be a positive development.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
