EcoRobotix and Blue River built smart weed-killing robots

Authored by cnbc.com and submitted by mvea

This weed-killing AI robot uses 20 times less herbicide and may disrupt a $26 billion market

Smart weed-killing robots are here and could soon reduce the need for herbicides and genetically modified crops. Swiss company EcoRobotix has a solar-powered robot that can work for up to 12 hours detecting and destroying weeds. Ecorobotix says the robot uses 20 times less herbicide than traditional methods. Blue River Technology has a See and Spray robot that uses a library of images to identify differences between plants and weeds. The robot learns and improves as it operates.

kingdeuceoff on June 4th, 2018 at 15:03 UTC »

The video says 20 TIMES less.... the equivalent of 95% LESS.

Edit: Thanks kind stranger. WAIT. Stranger was JEFF GOLDBLUM. https://imgur.com/a/DQDoBQT

Thanks Jeff Goldblum /u/_JeffGoldblum, I probably wasn't going to see Jurassic World, but I feel obligated to now so I can tell everyone that you gilded a reddit post of mine. Good marketing.

xwing_n_it on June 4th, 2018 at 14:13 UTC »

Headline says 20 percent, but the article says 20 TIMES less herbicide. Which makes sense since you're not spraying into the wind willy-nilly from a low-flying aircraft.

ForresterQ on June 4th, 2018 at 13:57 UTC »

Great, now the weeds will adapt to this by learning to take out robots. Great work science.