For a gardener, weeding by hand can be a backbreaking chore — for an organic farmer working fields at a large scale, however, it can be all that in addition to a major business constraint.
"Weeding takes up about 50-75% of the work we do. Some parts of the year, it's just weeding," said organic farmer Tim Laird. "Organic farmers are trying to come up with different ways of combating the weeds."
Robotics students from the Olin College of Engineering are helping to find a solution to that. A group at the Massachusetts university worked with Laird as they invented an autonomous robot that can identify and manually pick small weeds as it navigates rows of crops. Though their creation, dubbed Phoenix Bot, isn't yet ready for a mass rollout to farmers, it shows how different high-tech systems can be integrated to make new tools for eco-friendly agriculture.
"What the student team has developed here is truly exciting," said the students' project adviser Kenechukwu Mbanisi, an assistant professor at Olin. "They're taking a complex, multifaceted problem of autonomous weeding … and building the entire system from the ground up."
Agriculture is undergoing a technological revolution, with advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) offering new solutions for better productivity and sustainability.
Companies such as John Deere are already working to incorporate AI and machine learning into autonomous tractors and harvesters. Capable of working almost nonstop, these machines can plant, harvest, and precisely apply chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides to crops, increasing yields while reducing input. This all combines to bring food to market cheaper, easier, and more sustainably.
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Developers are also working on other AI tools to improve weather analysis for farmers, helping them better prepare for the challenges posed by climate change. Companies such as ClimateAI are developing more localized and accurate forecasts, allowing farmers to make faster, data-driven decisions that increase crop resilience.
These cutting-edge technologies are already transforming the agricultural landscape. With each breakthrough, farmers and engineers are working together to make our food chain more efficient, eco-friendly, and prepared for the challenges ahead.
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