I’m co-founder of the “space bots with lasers” company.
Happy to answer any questions.
Happy to answer any questions.
Can lasers kill weeds at the root, or do you just keep them "mowed" down to size with repeated applications?
There’s a few techniques. You can cut the meristem or you can heat the weed. If you can explode the physiology, they don’t grow back.
What wavelength to use for that could be an interesting discussion. Makes me wonder whether you could use masers (microwave lasers) rather than optical lasers for a more efficient "heating the weed from the inside" effect.
Like, can the robot move down the row as fast as a human weeding by hand? Can it carry a car battery and weed for an eight hour shift?
Speed of movement / detection / destruction cycle isn't as important as cost per unit of land patrolled - these are things you can easily scale up if the price per device is low enough. Compare & contrast cost of humans.
And regular sweeps means you won't be seeing hundreds of weeds per square metre, certainly not once the primary crop's established.
I recall the Bosch weed-stamper robot from a few years ago were pretty happy with ~ 2 weeks per second stomping rate.
Edit: oops, I guess this should be directed at the small robot company, not the space bots with laser company.
But price erosion in the parts is dramatic and the software baseline is rising.
Do you want farmers to eventually be able to operate the fleets you sell them, or would you prefer to sell the entire operation to farmers and manage the fleets yourself?
Note that the laser weeding in the article is researchware — not a commercial product.