AI robots fill in for weed killers and farm hands
As farms across the United States face a shortage of labourers and weeds grow resistant to herbicides, start-up Aigen says its robotic solution, named Element, can save farmers money, help the environment and keep harmful chemicals out of food.
"I believe this is the biggest thing we can do to improve human health," co-founder and chief technology officer Richard Wurden said, as robots made their way through crops at Bowles Farm in the town of Los Banos.
"Everybody's eating food sprayed with chemicals."
Wurden, a mechanical engineer who spent five years at Tesla, went to work on the robot after relatives who farm in Minnesota told him weeding was a costly bane.
Weeds are becoming immune to herbicides, but a shortage of labourers often leaves chemicals as the only viable option, said Wurden.
"No farmer that we've ever talked to said 'I'm in love with chemicals'," added Aigen co-founder and chief executive Kenny Lee, whose background is in software.
"They use it because it's a tool — we're trying to create an alternative."
Element the robot resembles a large table on wheels, solar panels on top. Metal arms equipped with small blades reach down to hoe between crop plants.
"It mimics how humans work," Lee said as the temperature hit 32°C under a cloudless sky.
"When the sun goes down, it just powers down and goes to sleep; then in the morning it comes back up and starts going again."
The robot's AI system takes in data from on-board cameras, allowing it to follow crop rows and identify weeds.
"If you think this is a job that we want humans to do, just spend two hours in the field weeding," Wurden said.
Aigen's vision is for workers who once toiled in the heat to be "upskilled" to monitor and troubleshoot robots.
Along with the on-board AI, robots communicate wirelessly with small control centres, notifying handlers of mishaps.
Aigen has robots running in tomato, cotton and sugar beet fields, and touts the technology's ability to weed without damaging the crops.
Lee said it takes about five robots to weed 65ha of farmland.
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