Originally published at: Robot can kill 20 times as many weeds as a human farmer | Boing Boing
…
5 Likes
25 Likes
Killing weeds with lasers. And I assume blinding moles.
5 Likes
“Thanks for the light Mr.”
12 Likes
It needs a KITT/Cylon moving red light in one of the Vs on the front.
7 Likes
Ah, the humble beginnings of SkyNet.
7 Likes
I’m ready to deploy anti-mosquito lasers around my house - please bring them on
12 Likes
That is an interesting idea, and one that would be scalable to the larger farms, to reduce the use/need for herbicides.
10 Likes
It looks really heavy – much heavier than it should be, I think. Are CO2 lasers that massive?
1 Like
Yup. And not likely to be replacing people given the shortage of farmers, farm laborers. And the fact that this work is typically done by very low paid migrant labor.
Or just skipped in favor of spraying all the things all the time.
5 Likes
My buddy Eric was nicknamed RoundUp for some reason
I read somewhere that the First Nations called that weed plantain “European footprint”, because it was brought to the Americas from abroad and is now everywhere. It’s only a matter of time until the robots take out the direct source of the weeds.
Roooobots rooobbboots let’s think this through. Plantain weeds have incredible topical healing benefits!
ZAP. Sizzle
1 Like
I totally read the headline as “Robots are 20 times more efficeint at killing weeds than killing human farmers”
Pew pew.
3 Likes
Yep. I like the idea of eliminating pesticides completely where possible, but there are similar agricultural robots out there that can use pesticides much more efficiently through precision application directly to the weeds rather than the brute-force spraying that is done now. Also, there are cool robots with advanced camera systems that see in color spectrums we can’t, and diagnose which plants are low on what specific nutrients or whatever. Farming is getting incredibly high-tech and we’re reaching a point where we no longer need to genetically engineer everything to be pesticide-resistant in order to increase yields.
7 Likes
Wi-Fi enabled Deet-Bot, sold on Amazon. /s
1 Like
Oddly enough, I read it as “Robots are 20 times more efficient at killing.” But then, I didn’t have enough caffeine in my system yet…
" including sometimes using pocket knives to carve away weeds around the onions."
How odd. On my lawn the onions are the weeds.
I have so many questions… like have these robots been circumcised?
Can a laser really kill a weed? I thought you needed to deroot them.
1 Like
chill robot dude!
don’t go zappin’ my weed, man. that’s just, like, harsh, ya’know.
1 Like
