Slashdot Mirror
Hi-Tech Weed-Killer
Makarand writes "Instead of making improvements to automatic mechanical weeders, Engineers at UC Davis have been
busy
developing the next generation robotic weeder which will use computerized images of
crop rows to identify weeds and zap them. The system can identify weeds from the regular crop by
assessing shape, color, size and other variables from the captured images of the crop row.
A robotic cultivator will then blast weeds with a weedkiller using syringes mounted on
a tractor. A GPS allows the system to calculate weed type densities within the field and the amounts of chemicals dispensed in the area."
...a robot that mows the lawn?
I'll bet the DEA is super happy about this.
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
So does it get a mention in the robot hall of fame?
Guess that eliminates my garden...
The UC Davis robotic weed killer for the Robot Hall of Fame
how soon till someone hacks a zapper bot and subs a picture of say oh I don't KNOW a COW or Farmer Joe :)
Where's Tom Selleck these days ?
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
If it can recognize the weed, how much harder would it be to design an arm to *pull* it!?! (or roll it and smoke it :)
Has got to be the Napalm launcher in Postal 2 *evil grin*
"The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else." - Bush 05
Weed killer???
;)
how will i get my buzz???
the ramifications of using this product are way too much for this soul to bear.
time to "get rid" of my weed before someone else does
ZERO
You know virtually all systems have bugs in them.
I wonder how long until the weeds find the exploits.
Now I've seen Everything
I remember working for a company which was trying to sell computer hardware to an organisation developing a system like this.
The system had a plant recognition benchmark we had to run. It was calibrated in 'cabbages per second'.
to protect Sarah Conner's garden from her enemies...
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Until this device can tell the difference between morning glory at 2 inches tall and okra at 2 inches tall, there's still a job for human beings. Those were some long summer days. On the upside, people paid well for okra.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Around here (midwestern USA), the farmers are reluctant to try even the most basic of new things (no-till farming, organics, etc). I'm having a hard time imagining any of the farmers that I know shelling out a couple of grand on a robot with a camera, to run up & down the fields.
Then again, if they can show how the cost is offset by gains in yields, then it just might get some use. Another concern is battery life - just how far is this thing going to go on a charge? 1 mile? That'll cover 4 rows...then what?
And with advances in genetic\bio engineering, how useful do you think this'll be in the future?
*shrug* I honestly don't know, but just a thought....
The weed-killing machine still has a few bugs. For example, overlapping weeds and crops can confound the computerized instructions that run the squirt guns.
Nothing still beats the human eye and mind for such tasks, since there are so many variables involved in the location of weeds versus crops.
If such equipment can be further refined, perhaps with a robotic arm to look behind and possibly separate weeds from crops, sometthing close to human accuracy can be obtained.
At least now, the danger to humans with working with pesticides can be reduced.
The Pigloo
I bet the Crop Circle nuts will love this!
Nothing to see here; Move along.
They've gotta develop this for home use - I have 3 kids under the age of 14 months. I barely have time to go get the mail, let alone stay outside long enough to mow the lawn and take care of weeds...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
The problem is that there will be a class of weed that this thing won't be able to "see"... and that weed will thrive.
THEN you'll have to hire a worker to go pluck them out. Or get a software upgrade. Or both.
Anything which can reduce the reliance on pesticides is a GOOD thing. Now we just need to do something similar for fertizilers, if a farmer could use a lower base level of fertiziler and have the machine add additional amounts only to those areas that most need it then the overall usage would probably go way down and the impact on the environment would be reduced.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
does it work on cube farms?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Hmm...somehow that doesn't seem right...in a closed enviroment maybe..., but I'm sure that wind would throw that 1cm accuracy off being sprayed from that far away. Anyone have a garden? No mater large or small, there's always bound to be weeds growing directly underneath and alongside of your plants. Even if controlled by a human driver (yea, it's not even really that automated yet, is it?) I still imagine it's not that accurate- yet.
10 years.
I think sooner if it is to actually pan out, I'm sure we can reach this technology in 5 years...
Pee on the weeds, it's free and eco friendly :)
They've gotta develop this for home use - I have 3 kids under the age of 14 months. I barely have time to go get the mail, let alone stay outside long enough to mow the lawn and take care of weeds...
The solution is fairly easy... just let you lawn go to shit for the next couple years, but train your kids to be master weed-pickers. That way right when they start being able to move under their own power, you'll have three, free, weed-pulling 'machines'.
:D
neurostardeveloping the next generation robotic weeder
Where was the first one?
I wish I had something like this. Last weekend I fired up my string trimmer (weed whacker). I took the normal precautions like long sleeve shirt, pants, socks, boots, goggles, ivy block, immediate shower afterwards etc.. It did not help at all. This week I am completely covered in poision ivy. I am ichy as hell, can't sleep and my eyes were swelling shut. I already had to get a shot and am taking various pills and creams. I even had to take a sick day from work, my first one in over 1.5 years. I actually could have gone to work, I felt fine but I looked like a mutant. My reaction to it seems to get worse ever year.
My next path is going to be chemicals. I am going to spray anything and everything within a foot of my fences and obstructions.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
(I mean, because planting weeds in your garden might hurt the other plants by taking away all of their soil moisture and that might be illegal under the Fair Treatment of Plants Act or some such thing that they'll invent for the purpose of arresting you.)
OK, TO GET SERIOUS NOW: The way I see it, such a device could be used to grow enormous amounts of food in warehouses. You put plants on large (say 6 foot diameter) plates or bowls with soil in them, and these are mounted in several levels (one on top of the other) in a vertical arrangment, reaching the 6 story high ceiling and extending from one end of a 1,000,000 square foot warehouse to the other and from side to side. Each plate would have lighting as well as hoses for dispensing water, carbon dioxide and whatever else is necessary for sustaining the life of the plants in that bowl.
A 3D imaging system mounted on a track for navigating through the entire warehouse would constantly circle around and use plant-recognition software to recognize the state of the plant's growth. The system would use this feedback to route water and necessary nutrients and gases to each plant in the exact amounts appropriate. When the plant (be it carrots, potatoes, grapes, or even apples on an apple tree (mounted on a much larger bowl with more clearance, obviously) reach their ripe stage, a message is dispatched to pick those plants. If the plant appears to be attacked by insects, a message is dispatched to immediately take care of these plants to prevent further spread. In fact, the system might zap these plants immediately. (A Matrix style robot goes around to pick ripe plants and get rid of bad ones?) This might not be so far fetched and could certainly provide enough food (given enough warehouses) to feed our planet five times over. When we come to the stage that food is produced so cheaply that throwing it away is more expensive than giving it away, we'll be fine.
These guys must have read Marvin Minsky's fiction account of robots and AI. This (crop care/maintenance) was one of the first commercial applications of the robotic AI in the book after the prototype was snatched. I think he used bugs instead of weeds, though. Maybe both. Been a while since I read it.
GF.
Lots of petrified grits
And all this time I've been trying to get my weed to grow!
But seriously though, are weeds that big of a problem?
News, Views, and things that Amuse, oh plus hot babes in bikinis and stuff!
I believe this will be introduced just after the duplicate story detector.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
This is a pretty neat idea. Assuming, of course, that the weed-recognition and pesticide-aiming devices actually work as advertised. But why not take it to the next level: hook up a robotic hoe! Or a robotic weed-pulling arm. You get the idea. Removes the need for any pesticides. After all, the article seemed to imply that this was a replacement for humans armed with hoes...
Of course, this sort of technology only stands a chance of adoption if it's cheaper to buy than it is to hire migrant workers. Sad but true. I won't hold my breath.
-Mike
This sig no verb.
I thought it said "High Tech Killer Weed" at first. I got excited. Finally, a /. topic that's REALLY interesting. I'm so sad. Disappointed, not stoned, and sad.
Program it to rip up all your neighbors flowers and blame it on a 'power surge'.
. . . it didn't use weed killers! Guess no one wants to bring this technology to oraganic farmers.
I can't be the only dyslexic stoner that read the headline as "High-tech Killer Weed"... I got a bit excited for a bit, HEH.
Restating the obvious since nineteen aught five.
This gives factory farming a new name!
Why do we get weeds? As they say, Nature abhors a vacuum. So, any tilled space between plantings and rows is enrgy going to waste. Weeds sprout up in this empty space to capture that energy.
So if you want to control weeds in a manner that doesn't cost (hundreds) of thousands, pollute rivers, stream and groundwater, just keep it simple stupid:
Plant cover crops in-between and among your primary crop. It could be a harvestable plant, such as pole beans on corn or basil with tomatoes, though this makes harvesting a job for people and not machines. Or plant a companion crop which adds nutrients to the soil. Legumes add nitrates, buckwheat grass makes great compost, just till it under with your next planting. Even better plant flowers and other hebs that attract colonies of beneficial insects that will help control insect populations in your primary crop.
We got by for a long time without these chemicals. Organic farmers in the US and Bio-dynamic farmers in Europe and harvesting yields that dwarf factory farms, with better flavor and nutrients than conventional produce, and no toxic chemicals.
This idea was implemented ages ago, using a device called a "gardener".
No story here.
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Sheesh. Seems like a lot of effort. I'm all about "go with the flow". Would we have to genetically modify ourselves to enjoy weeds instead of arugola, or would it just involve boiling and salt?
and if not US citizens you don't have to worry about that health care problem or is it the other way around? I can never remember who gets better health care, I guess it probably depends on who I'm talking with. of course I don't think even migrant farm workers spray one weed at a time. Usually they're working the fields while some airplane flys overhead and crop dust them with toxic chemicals. (yes it still happens) I should probably link to cesar chavez here http://www.sfsu.edu/~cecipp/cesar_chavez/chavezhom e.htm
p.s. why is it i feel guilty calling mexicans mexicans and i never feel guilty calling canadians canadians? hmm, I wonder what Richard Rodriguez would say on the matter - here it is:
"The interesting thing about Hispanics, of course, is that you can travel all over Latin America and never meet one. There are no Hispanics in Latin America. There are Bolivians, Chileans and Mexicans. You have to come to Miami or Sacramento to meet a Hispanic. There is a large controversy among us as to whether we are Latinos or Hispanics. Hispanics are nothing if not people preoccupied by fathers and ceremony, and we worry a great deal about which is the right word for us. The argument against Hispanic is that it gives too much of our identity to Spain."
in my case I'm actually referring to people from mexico, so mexican is appropriate. there I feel better now. Thanks Richard.
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
As long as the accuracy for weed detection / differentiation is high, this should cut down on the amount of herbacides that are needlessly introduced into our environment. The next generation of farm-bot after this one: the Bug-Killer. It locates specific insects, based on visual, aural, maybe even olfactry observation, isolates the area that the bug(s) were detected in (say, with mosqito netting), applies small amounts of pestecide until the insect is no longer detected (or a specific amount, or whatever), whereupon the quarrantined area is then washed clean with water jets to insure pestecide being contained as effectively as the offending insects.
"Sometimes you have fun, and sometimes the fun has you"
Maybe UC's money would be better-spent researching improved organic
methods to control weeds, rather than contributing to the very real
problem of synthetic chemical pollutants in the environment.
I am not impressed with this irresponsible use of
technology.
Seems to me that a technology like this should be designed to be attractive to organic growers, since they're far more likely to be interested in a robotic weed killer. But it better have a fuel cell or enviromentally friendly battery, too.
And why kill weeds in place when you can just yank 'em and dump the whole thing in the compost pile? I was expecting a big bot with a couple of graspers on either end and a huge solar energy collecting mast on top.
But really, I just disagree with the premise that agriculture needs to be fully mechanized and automated to help the economy, or whatever tbe argument supporting things like this might actually be.
It sounds cute, but they are still using toxins to do the job.
They could burn the plants using pinpoint fire, or a really large magnifying glass, or concentrated syringes of ammonia -- short toxicity with a biologically friendly byproduct.
Non-toxic and the plants will not build up a resistance
What a waste of technology! Think about it: They're going to go to the effort of doing a brute-force identification of weeds (i.e. looking at every plant in every row, instead of using a broadly-targeted agent). But then they fall back on an old-school method of killing the weed -- by poisoning. Yeah, targeted poisoning, but it's a refinement of an undesirable technology.
:)
Now, it seems to me that if you're going to the effort of imaging the leaves of virtually every stalk coming out of the ground, you ought to take the opportunity to do something very selective and low-impact to the surrounding plants. Like pull the damn thing out, roots and all. No expense of chemical agents, no breeding of resistant weed species, and it produces a product that people are willing to pay a premium for. I'm pretty sure that having weeds pulled robotically would not impact the qualification of a product as "organic."
Just my $0.02US, but I'd sooner feed my kids methodically/robotically well-managed organic food than feed them foodstuffs protected by well-targeted herbicides and pesticides. Why play that lottery if you have the technological means to avoid it?
I think not...(*poof*)
Ortho kills weeds dead.
And your children.
And any pets.
And your neighbor's children.
And your neighbor's pets.
But darnit, the weeds sure are dead!
Roundup, same shit, just more blatant "will kill all" warnings.
Also works to kill ants, roaches, small hives of alien invaders, large hives of alien invaders, and anybody who you just don't like.
I love my bottle of roundup.
Robotic my ass, I got weeds growing through my freaking CONCRETE. Let me restate that
THE WEEDS HAVE PUNCHED HOLES THROUGH THE DAMNED CONCRETE
Now unless this robot has a JACKHAMMER on board, I think it is pretty safe to say the it has ZERO chance of getting to the weeds.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Good idea, but what you are missing is the fact that the ground only holds so much in amount of nutients, water, etc, and even if some plants give back some nutrients to the soil while growing, the secondary plants will just be competition to the primary crop, resulting in stunted yields. Also, with the height that corn grows, it would be virtually impossible to grow anything in between the rows, since the corn would block all the sunlight to the shorter plants. The secondary crop would grow well until the corn grew taller than it, but in the end this hurts the very important early growth of the corn. This would also result in leaching of the soil, since there would be so much growing in such a small place, with neither growing to its full capability.
Or...farmers can just continue rotating crops every year like they do and adding only as much fertilizer as needed, keeping their yields as high as possible.
The general objective is to grow crops with the minimal inputs needed to get good results. It's basic factory quality control. Measure, compute, apply.
Robots for agriculture have been around for a decade or so, but only as prototypes. That's beginning to change. Computers, cameras, and servomotors are so cheap now. Agricultural implements are getting smarter. Still, mechanical harvesting of fruits and vegetables hasn't made much progress in recent years. The crops that were hand-picked in 1975 are pretty much the ones that are still hand-picked. (Except for tomatoes, which have been made tough enough for machine picking by breeding and genetic engineering.)
In the developed world, all grain, rice, potatoes, corn, and cotton picking was, of course, mechanized decades ago. Which is why those things are so cheap.
Judging by the skillfull aim with which American companies try to eradicate coca crops in Columbia, this robot will start spraying poison at the farmhouse and make the farmers sick (if not killing them), then proceed to kill everything in the fields: weeds, crops, and animals. Sounds great.
Oh no! Not my WEED!!! ..need it to make joints..
"Now we just need to do something similar for fertizilers, if a farmer could use a lower base level of fertiziler and have the machine add additional amounts only to those areas that most need it then the overall usage would probably go way down and the impact on the environment would be reduced. "
I just happened to be watching the Discovery Channel the other day and saw a piece on 21st century farming. Acording to expose, one of the techniques now being used is GPS - Precision farming. By using this technique pesticides and fertilizers can be reduced to only the places that need them. Thus, reducing prices by incresing farming yields all the while reducing the amount of fertilizers in foods. Sweet!
link
peace
PS: Save the trees
I'm not really worried about the high tech weeds - if someone could find somehting to take care of run of the mill "garden variety" weeds, i'd be happy - I'll concern myself with high tech weeds after that.
ha.
The ultimate high tech killer weed story was written ages ago. It was even made it into a movie which is still considered a classic, though it isn't nearly as nice as the book: _The Day of the Triffids_. The BBC produced a mini-series based on the book, and THAT is well-worth watching.
Here, check this out:
http://www.sho.com/ptbs/topics.cfm?topic=et
That's probably the best show on TV right now!! (At least 'till the Sopranos returns....)
--DM
Farming is one place the US still has such a tremendous technical advantage that we can still do it cheaper than slave labor. Well, OK, if you don't count those poor Mexicans we drag in at less than minimum wage to pick strawberries, oranges and sugar cane, we still rock. So long as we don't let the larger ag-chem companies use slave labor and government subsidies to put small farmers out of business, we will still be free to work the land. As long as we don't let conglomerates and distributors and grocery stores engage in anti-competitive behavior like shelf purchasing, we will have a competitive food market and the best and freshest of food will continue to be affordable to all and our diet will not consist of various forms of corn syrup, extruded grain human dog food and beer thats mostly water. As long as we don't restrict electronic publishing so that only three or four broadcasters, wholy owned by said conglomerates, own the airwaves so that they can publish only the things that don't embarras them, we will be able to find out about such evil practices. Uhh, what was I saying? Yeah, the US free market rocks thanks to all the great market intervention that keeps us all so free. We still got better food than places like Japan that are mostly barren rock.
I'm going to sleep now. Good night.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
if not CASH_CROPS.match(plant_image): kill(plant)
That's not a weed! You killed Kenny, you bastards!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Hah and everyone thought crop circles were created with simple mathematics, people stomping around in snow shoes, or by UFOs.
My theory is It's these weed picking robots run amuck.
Right now there is another automated method for applying pesticides and herbicides- typically it is done via airplane. A machine like this would reduce the 'overspray' by a huge amount.
In the spring/summer I see crop-dusters flying all the time (actually, usually in the morning) and they really are cool- especially when they fly UNDER the low power lines. (Not the really high ones on the towers, but the ones on the short telephone poles)
I was surprised to see this on here. I have done most of the programming for these projects and have worked closely with each person mentioned. You can check out our outdated website for some of our previous projects at the BAESIL website.
You can also direct questions to me and I'll try and help.
Also We have looked at other methods of killing plants, such as knifes and even flame throwers. Saving on herbicide has it's obvious benefits.
And if anyone is looking for a machine vision programmer, hire me =)
"Now we just need to do something similar for fertizilers, if a farmer could use a lower base level of fertiziler and have the machine add additional amounts only to those areas that most need it then the overall usage would probably go way down and the impact on the environment would be reduced."
The planters(corn, beans, etc.) already drop the fertilizer right where the row of seeds will go. It's been like this for decades. Also, when side-dressing crops(adding fertilizer later while cultivating) the fertilizer is added where it is needed(near the plants' roots) and only in an amount that the soil and crop needs; discovered by soil tests. Now, with the use of GPS for precision farming...the fertilizer application will be even more precise, which is good for all.
If the robot is accurate enough to squirt a weed with weedkiller, why not go that extra step, do away with the pesticide and get the robot to pull the weed out?
Yeah, THAT doesn't sound like something out of a techno-nightmare. Tall skinny people beware, if this thing works!
I mean, when I picture post-apocalyptic matrix-machines-have-taken-over hell, I picture machines running around with SYRINGES and robot vision. Whatever happened to weed killer pesticides or illegal mexican imigrants? (that isn't some kind of racial slur! I swear!)
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
How dare you insult us. You will be liberated next nigger.
When I read the part about identify the weeds "and zap them", I assumed they really meant it would zap them, either with flame, hot air, or an electric arc. How disappointing to learn that "zap" to some people means "spray with toxins".
The main problem with modern agriculture is not the use of herbacides or, in some cases, pestacides. It is their OVERUSE due to MONO CULTURE, so called organic or otherwise. You can bet the herbacide industry, because of falling revenues, modern intense (organic) cultivation, and rotation techniques is just trying to sell more new expensive targeted patent poisons.
Problems caused by mono culture could, at least in part, be solved by robotics. The advancement of crop interplanting with targeted symbiotic and bio-chemical pest control of both invasive plants and insects with robotic aid is the way of the future farm.
Efficiency problems inherent with large scale planting, spacing, monitoring and harvesting of intercropped plants is the main reason why Farmers are slow to adopt these tested techniques. The exception is greenhouse farming.
Robotic intercropping research is not yet on the radar screen of the current American Government or the international chemical and industrial farming corporations. As long as mono culture dominates our food production, then we will keep up the vicious circle that is leading us to a silent spring.
There is nothing wrong with using chemicals. There is everthing wrong with not understanding how to use them from an environmental perspective. Life is afterall an organic chemical process.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
Am I the only one who after taking one look at this thought it was talking about an airport? Weeds are a better target for face(leaf) recognition technology rather than people, at least until it gets much much better. And I figure all those post 9/11 pseudotechnology companies need to license their image recognition software to someone...
--
"Extra Anus Kills Four-Legged Chick" -- Headline
dont kill TeH W33D!!!!
Go Aggies!
But with all the bio-engineering of plants... I'm waiting for someone to cross pot with Kudzu.
Then you'd have BudZu. Call me a mad scientist, but I bet it could be done.
God spoke to me
The California Tomato Research Institute also has spent $236,000 on the experiment but backed off recently, deeming the technology not advanced enough for immediate use. This excuse on its face doesnt make any sense at all to pull funding. Does anyone know more?
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
... and build some kind of mechanical weeding system in the robot. That way, reliance on pesticide could be almost eliminated.
Still a step in the right direction.
:wq
Has no one seen Runaway?! Do you want robot spiders directed by Gene Simmons to come for you and your son? I thought not.
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
wooooooohoooooo! High Tech Killer Budz! I can't hardly wait.... gonna be bakkkkked! What? huh? Whaz that you say? Weed Killer? Oh shucks... Guess it's back ta work...
I love these advances. Farmers can now use this technology to grow crops more cheaply, which means distributors will offer them less for their crops, forcing all farmers to get more loans to buy this technology to stay in business. Meanwhile the distributors, retailers, bankers and consumers will be unaffected.
What would really impress me is some technological innovation that eliminates the recording-industry-like agribusiness system. Something that lets farmers get their produce from the field to the stores, or better yet, directly to people's kitchens, and eliminates the army of leeching middlemen who run the show.
Seriously, there must be some kind of organic way to kill the weeds, if you can get this huge robot to identify them. Just replace the weedkiller with flames!
All weeds MUST set the evil bit to 1
BTW, did you ever stop and think that the FDA is deciding what goes into your body without you knowing it? Like we're comatose or something, and they have legal guardianship over us, or durable power of attorney? The food supply is like an IV with nutrients. Doesn't it bother you that stuff is going in that they make the decisions about instead of you? It's not about whether stuff is safe -- it's about who gets to decide. They have hijacked our decision rights by allowing ingredients that are not identified on the labels. Somebody ought to figure out how to make a constitutional case and return inalienable rights of decision to individuals.
Never mind if it's safe or not. If you don't know about it, you can't practice your idea of kosher or food scientology or fundmentalist kama food love.
And you have a right to that.
So I hope they get the farms off substance abuse and get the robots to do it the old fashioned way. So we won't have to read labels so carefully. Or worry about them.
hmmm wonder if "weed" as we know it will be included in one of the weeds to wack?!?