There are two huge potential benefits from using robots in ag fields that immediately come to mind: 1) Precision weeding. The best option I've seen so far is

There are two huge potential benefits from using robots in ag fields that immediately come to mind: 1) Precision weeding. The best option I've seen so far is using an IR laser and machine-learning based weed-recognition software to weed. Here's one example: https://www.freethink.com/robots-ai/farming-robot https://www.freethink.com/robots-ai/farming-robot > "The Autonomous Weeder can eliminate more than 100,000 weeds per hour and weed 15 to 20 acres of crops in one day — for comparison, Myers said a laborer can weed about one acre of his onions per day." The other has to do with precise fertilizer application. Right now, it's cheaper labor-wise to just dump fertilizer on the entire field, where a good fraction of it is lost due to things like runoff or denitrification. A robot could instead deliver aliquots of fertilizer right to the base of each plant, and could possibly even monitor plants individually for deficiencies. This could vastly reduce fertilizer demand in the optimal situation. This is also under current development: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2022.808484/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2022.8084... Nice to see people developing DIY versions, too! (Though I imagine CO2 lasers are a bit rough on the budget).