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‘Ten years ago this was science fiction’: the rise of weedkilling robots
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Animats 5y agoFor weeding, there are not just robots. There are wide implements pulled behind a tractor. These have many cameras looking down at the rows and zapping weeds. Deere sells that. Weed-It has been selling it for ten years.
- aaron695 5y agoThis just applies the herbicide to anything that's green and not dirt. That's not nothing, but still the last tech improvement is using Blue LED's because they see green better. Also cool. It's different to attacking only the weeds, which this technology can't do yet because it's still science fiction for a few more years yet as the headline points out. But it will be cool when it can.
- leereeves 5y agoInteresting article, but unfortunately light on technical details. How do these systems distinguish weeds from crops? How accurate are they?
- m3at 5y agoKnowing someone working in one of those companies it's mainly computer vision (based on recent machine learning techniques), and they're accurate for particular conditions only (not working on all crops yet). The difficulty is on handling edge cases (unsurprisingly), and they're tackling that by collecting a lot of in the field feedback; afaik they send technicians on lot of deployments still.
- toyg 5y agoThey look very much like the robotic harvesters featured in Interstellar. I guess Christopher Nolan knows the field.
- roenxi 5y agoIf these displace pesticides, that is a big win for everyone involved.
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoI wonder how weeds and pests will evolve to avoid this technology. Will we end up with laser resistant plants?
- Retric 5y agoRealistically better camouflage vs the associated crop, these robots aren’t doing DNA testing or anything.
- b15h0p 5y agoRight. You probably get weeds that look identical to the crop — at least for the neural network powering the robot. Interestingly similar to research that tries to fool image recognition software, but carried out by Mother Nature.
- inglor_cz 5y agoWell, deer and wolves haven't evolved bullet-proof hides either. The best strategy against such a source of massive trauma is probably not to be seen.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y agoOr to not be present. There isn't much that has evolved to live in the hotter parts of the Sahara. The challenge for any solution to these issues is to make sure it is so pervasive and comprehensive that it is too difficult to evolve around.
- xbmcuser 5y agoNatural selection will lead to weeds that cant be seen by the cameras over time.
- tantalor 5y agoIs "natural" the right word when a robot is involved?
- artifact_44 5y agoI too have seen the. Lassic robot dystopia film Runaway.
- artifact_44 5y agoI too have seen the. Classic robot dystopia film Runaway.
- shapefrog 5y agoT-when till the robots classify humans as weeds and go to work?
- tener 5y ago> At the same time, they are battling a rise in herbicide-resistant weeds, giving extra impetus to the search for new ways to kill weeds. Great, so now we will be getting laser resistant weeds...
- tener 5y agoYes, this was the joke. It was also true it may happen.
- trainsplanes 5y ago>Removing pests, such as aphids, thrips and lygus bugs, is a next step for FarmWise This would be great. Poisons become ineffective against their intended targets pretty quickly after a few generations, but evolving resistance against being zapped is a bigger hurdle to overcome.
- hackflip 5y agoI'm guessing they would eventually evolve towards camouflage/hiding from the zapper rather than resistance to zapping.
- inglor_cz 5y agoOr they would start widening their diet to include non-agricultural plants as well. That, too, is a way of escaping the killer robots.
- trainsplanes 5y agoAssuming it’s using some sort of ML to detect the bugs, that’s a matter of just inputting a new set of data. Easier to update a set of training images than find new poisons that don’t kill absolutely everything.
- nobodyandproud 5y agoOr updating the sensors and hardware, in cases where the camouflage is too good
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago> camouflage/hiding from the zapper Mirrored carapace. The refection could even harm the sensor.
- sparker72678 5y agoSomeone needs to write a SciFi short about this.
- Borrible 5y agoI alway wanted to build a flesh-eating robot for my garden, since I saw it back in 2001: https://web.archive.org/web/20040129031356/http://www.ias.uwe.ac.uk/Robots/slugbot.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20040129031356/http://www.ias.uw... https://web.archive.org/web/20040129031356/http://www.ias.uwe.ac.uk/Robots/slugbot.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20040129031356/http://www.ias.uw... Nowadays I have a lot more problems with bindweed. ... I see in Japan, they are further ahead to Make Room! Make Room! https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-03/six-robots-could-shape-future-earthquake-search-and-rescue/ https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-03/six-robots... Slugpeople. Uzumaki anyone?
- silexia 5y agoHow much energy does this system use? Powering a 10,000 lb machine and running a laser takes a lot of fuel whereas a few human laborers can do the same job with enormously less fuel cost.
- crishoj 5y agoWhile weeding by mechanical means instead of lasers, FarmDroid is powered by an onboard solar array.
- jatone 5y ago> a few human laborers can do the same job with enormously less fuel cost. and this is where you're wrong. humans have to live in society. the cost isn't just food. you need to pay for housing, their electrical bills, water, food, entertainment, children, their 2,000 lb machine to get to work... suddenly that 10,000 lb machine with lasers is pretty cheap.
- ohiovr 5y agoYes, fiction as a wish list works for future laborers.