Danish robot leads the way to greener use of herbicide
Scientists in Denmark have developed a robot that can help farmers reduce the amount of herbicide they spray on their crops by around 70 per cent, and could eventually remove the need for herbicide altogether. The robot works by driving across a field and scanning the ground for weeds and noting their position, thus enabling a farmer to spray the weeds more selectively based on the information provided by the robot. Trials by the team from the Danish institute of agricultural sciences and Aalborg University suggest that by adopting such targeted spraying techniques, farmers could reduce their use of herbicide by up to 70 per cent. The economic impact of such a reduction would be negligible, given the very low cost of herbicide, but as developer Svend Christensen explains: 'The most important benefit is to the environment.' The team already has plans to produce another version of the four wheeled, battery powered cart, which can kill weeds itself by applying a small amount of herbicide when it recognises them. Eventually, the team hopes to avoid the use of herbicides altogether by designing a robot able to pick the weeds rather than spray them. The robot's key innovation lies in the use of software, based on research into face-recognition technology, which enables it to scan a plant using a camera and then recognise it as a weed. 'Instead of faces, we describe the shape of weeds in terms of 15 different parameters, such as the size and symmetry of the leaves,' explains Dr Christensen. The robot then uses a GPS system to note the position of the weed, which the farmer will use when spraying the field. The next challenge for the team is to model the remaining 40 or so broadleaved weed species indigenous to Denmark in order to make use of the robot a viable option - a straightforward but extremely time consuming chore. More difficult will be the modelling of grassy weeds, which are the focus of most of the herbicide sprayed by crop farmers around the world.
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Denmark