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."

Comments

Wow, what will they think of next...

[fpp]

...a robot that mows the lawn?

Weed killer?

[BortQ]

I'll bet the DEA is super happy about this.

Crop rows?

[pphrdza]

You've got to have your plants in rows for it to recognize them?

Guess that eliminates my garden...

Evolution

[xMonkey]

You know virtually all systems have bugs in them.

I wonder how long until the weeds find the exploits.

Benchmark

[zaibutsu]

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'.