These dexterous robots are getting ready to disrupt the multi-billion dollar pesticide and seed industry by using AI technology to selectively seek and destroy weeds.
Currently, farmers are forced to shell out cash for large amounts of herbicide that is indiscriminately sprayed over their crops – 90% of which have already been genetically modified to resist the weed-killing chemicals, says Reuters. The seed and pesticide industry is currently worth about $100 billion, and thanks to lucrative business models such as this, $26 billion of it alone is from the herbicide industry.
These robots, on the other hand, are autonomously designed to gently roll across farmlands and use built-in cameras to search for individual weeds, rather than blindly blanketing an entire crop field. Once a weed is detected, the contraption shoots a minuscule amount of herbicide directly onto the plant and continues on its merry way.
The 4-wheeled, solar-powered…
