The Autonomous Weeder can eliminate more than 100,000 weeds per hour and weed 15 to 20 acres of crops in one day - for comparison, Myers said a laborer can weed about one acre of his onions per day.īig money machine: Myers expects the farming robot to pay for itself in two to three years, but it does come with a hefty price tag: Carbon Robotics’ CEO Paul Mikesell told the Seattle Times it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars (he declined to provide an exact price).

An onboard computer, powered by AI, identifies weeds, and the robot’s carbon dioxide lasers then zap and kill the plants. How it works: The farming robot looks like a large cube on wheels.Īs it drives itself down rows of crops, its 12 cameras scan the ground. The Autonomous Weeder kills weeds without harming soil or water, and it operates autonomously, eliminating the reliance on manual laborers. “It’s harder to find people to do that work every single year,” vegetable farmer Shay Myers told the Seattle Times. Weeds can be pulled out by hand, but it’s unpleasant work, and labor shortages are already a huge problem in the agriculture industry. They can also make it easier for insect pests to harm crops, so weed control is a top concern for farmers.Ĭhemical herbicides can kill the pesky plants, but they can also contaminate water and affect soil health. The weedkiller challenge: Weeds compete with plants for space, sunlight, and soil nutrients. Carbon Robotics has unveiled the third-generation of its Autonomous Weeder, a smart farming robot that identifies weeds and then destroys them with high-power lasers.

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