World first solar-powered weeder and sower named 'machine of the year'

FarmDroid FD20 is the world’s first fully automatic robot that can take care of both sowing and weed control.

A solar-powered weeding and seeing robot has been crowned "machine of the year" at this year's National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co Laois.

FarmDroid FD20 is the world’s first fully automatic robot that can take care of both sowing and weed control.

The robot, sitting at around 3m by 2.5m, costs around €95,000 and enables farmers a carbon-neutral and pesticide-free way to sow crops and control weeds while also reducing costs, eliminating the need for exhausting, manual work.

With GPS technology, FarmDroid sows the crops in the field and marks precisely where every single crop is placed. 

While typical GPS systems have an accuracy of around a metre because satellites can drift slightly in space, FarmDroid uses RTK technology, a type of GPS which uses a receiver to correct its position to achieve up to 8mm of positional accuracy.

Subsequently, it performs mechanical weed control without a camera, both between the rows and intra-row between each individual crop, securing effective, precise, and non-chemical weeding of the field.

The unique sowing precision enables the robot to clean the crops closely, eliminating the need for manual or chemical weed control.

A spokesperson explained: "The four solar panels placed on top of the robot produce power for a battery package that ensures up to 24 hours daily and carbon-neutral operation of the robot.

"In this way, you do not need to charge the batteries externally. You can let your FarmDroid work in the field throughout the entire season with a clear conscience and without worrying about the weather."

FarmDroid was invented in 2018 by two Danish brothers, Jens Warming and Kristian Warming, who wanted to find a less labour-intensive way of weeding their crops without chemicals.

Since its launch on the market less than two years ago, they have sold more than 300 of the machines globally, with IAM Agricultural Machinery appointed as the sole distributor for FarmDroid in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“IAM Agricultural Machinery is looking to be a good partner for FarmDroid to introduce our automatic seeding and weeding field robots to Ireland. With over 60 years of experience in agriculture, while continuing being innovative, it is a perfect match for FarmDroid," FarmDroid head of sales and marketing Eddie Bolding Pedersen said.

IAM Agricultural Machinery sales and business development director Pat Kenny added: “FarmDroid is the first truly commercial autonomous robot operating on farms around the world, and we are delighted to partner with them."

Mr Kenny told the Irish Examiner he had seen the machine demonstrated in Shropshire, England.

"Because it knows exactly where each seed is placed, it is able to disturb the soil around the seed slightly and effectively weed before the crop even starts to emerge," he said.

"They talk about competition for light in the tillage sector, but there is also competition for nutrients because once that weed seed germinates, it is taking nutrients out of the soil. The farmer in Shropshire said he had seen big benefits in yield for his fodder beet from the crop getting a better start. It eliminates competition by moving the weed seed."

Video-based weeding systems need a crop to be established before they can work.

Mr Kenny admits FarmDroid is "slow and steady" - as legislation currently dictates that fully autonomous machines must go less than 1km/hour without supervision. 

However, he reckons the system could have benefits for smaller 

"Large-scale farmers might be able to get productivity from a big machine with big labour requirements, but the small guy can't compete. But by buying a robot that can work all-day-long, I think it will tip the economies of scale back towards the smaller guy; we've already seen that with some of the robotic milking parlours.

"Weeding is one of the biggest issues. One man at the ploughing told me that there were seven of them picking potatoes the week before the show - and he was the youngest of them at 58.

"The opportunity for farmers is huge with some of these machines - especially those on the cusp of thinking of going organic. There are a lot of beef farmers who could tip themselves into it if they had better availability of organic fodder beet."