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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."
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 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.
developing 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.
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
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.
Huh? Farmers are more than happy to try out the new high tech seeds, time-release fertilizers, more effective pesticides, herbicides, etc.
I think what you meant is they are reluctant to try new things that don't increase their yield.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
DEA? Hell, I'm sure Rumsfeld would like to know about it. They made a pretty big fuss about a comparable find in Iraq.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I was going to say that, but you beet me to it (groan).
Pulling is probably not practical. Some weeds like dandelions have long tap roots. Either the weed is very hard to pull, or you break off the tap root and the weed is back up in just a few days. Sometimes I can wiggle a dandelion juuust right and get most of the tap root, but more often than not I break them. I imagine training a robot to do it would be pretty difficult. Of course, I don't try to dig 'em because that would just make the lawn even uglier. In a field you don't care about things looking pretty, but then you'd have to worry about damaging the root system of the crop plants; so digging is out.
That said, it would be nice to have an organic farmer's version of the robot that ran more frequently and clipped the weed at the base.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
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*)