ecoRobotix Ltd

Autonomous robotic weeding: trends, technologies, players

This is the 4th article in our series of articles focused on agricultural robotics. In this article we consider the trends towards autonomous robotic weeding enabled by AI based vision technology and navigational autonomy.

Farmwise

FarmWise is based in San Francisco and has raised $20M (there are 55 people now. Established in 2017). It seeks to offer to robotics together with AI-based services. Its tech roadmap is to go from autonomous weeding to plant-level farming data to autonomous farming.

Autonomous robot weeder challenges traditional methods

The robot works without being controlled by a human operator. It covers the ground just by getting its bearings and positioning itself with the help of its camera, GPS RTK and sensors. Its system of vision enables it to follow crop rows, and to detect the presence and position of weeds in and between the rows. Two robotic arms then apply a microdose of herbicide, systematically targeting the weeds that have been detected.

Agricultural robotics and drones: diversity of functions, forms

Our research, published in Agricultural Robots and Drones 2018-2038: Technologies, Markets and Players, describes how robotics is transforming the world of agriculture. Indeed, our previous articles have described agricultural robotics and drones could become a $28Bn and $35B industry by 2028 and 2038, respectively. In this article, we seek to demonstrate the diversity of functions, forms and fortunes that exists, and will continue to exist, in agricultural robotics.

Mobile robots: key to success lies in fleet productivity

Autonomous mobile robots are causing a paradigm shift in the way we envisage commercial and industrial vehicles.

Agricultural robots: bringing data to least digitised major industry

Agriculture is one of the world's least digitized major industries. This is however all about to change. Indeed, data acquisition and analytics companies are already a hot topic, and as such are subject to growing capital investments. This trend is captured in the figure below.

Robotics is the future of agrochemicals business

Crop protection, chemicals and robotics at first appear totally unrelated, yet IDTechEx Research finds that steady improvements in agricultural robotics will, slowly but surely, fundamentally alter the crop protection chemicals business.