Agricultural robot kills weeds and saves farms

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has unveiled Agbot II — a fully autonomous agricultural robot that could reduce the costs of weeding in Australia’s farm sector by $1.3 billion a year.

Professor Tristan Perez, leader of QUT’s agricultural robotics program, said weeds are becoming increasingly immune to chemical control. That was why it was important an agricultural robot could not only detect, but classify the weed species on the spot and decide which actions to take to treat them.

Professor Perez said Agbot II’s sensors, software and other electronics enable it to navigate through a field, detect and classify weeds and then kill them either mechanically or chemically. The robot can also be used to apply fertiliser.

“The cutting-edge robotic vision gives Agbot II the ability to spot-spray selected weed species and use mechanical tools to remove other weeds species that are herbicide resistant,” Professor Perez said.

“To date, we have concentrated on the three weeds that are relevant to Queensland — volunteer cotton, sow thistle and wild oats — and the vision system operated with 99% accuracy in the classification of the correct species based on the images collected by the robot cameras.”

Professor Perez said Agbot ll is solar powered at present, which is good for the environment and the farmer’s budget. He added that the robot’s light weight of 600 kg “will help reduce soil compaction that affects the yield by limiting the root development of the crops”.

“Also due to weight, the robots can be deployed faster onto fields after rain to keep a tight control of weeds before they drop their seeds,” Professor Perez said.

“In addition, Agbots are designed to work in groups and this increases the reliability of weeding operations. If one robot has a problem and fails, the others continue operating. This is not the case with a single-tractor or single-sprayer operation.”

“In future versions, the robots could also feed back data on such things as soil and crop health and the state of diseases as they conduct their operations,” he said. “This would enable better management decisions driven by paddock specific real-time information.”

The QUT team is currently in discussion with potential commercialisation partners to take the technology to Australian farmers.

Image courtesy of QUT media via Flickr