‘Ten years ago this was science fiction’: the rise of weedkilling robots
A robot made by Carbon Robotics kills weeds on farmland using lasers. Photograph: Carbon Robotics
In the corner of an Ohio field, a laser-armed robot inches through a sea of onions, zapping weeds as it goes.
This field doesn’t belong to a dystopian future but to Shay Myers, a third-generation farmer who began using two robots last year to weed his 30-acre crop. The robots – which are nearly three metres long, weigh 4,300kg and resemble a small car – clamber slowly across a field, scanning beneath them for weeds which they then target with laser bursts.
