UK farmbot field trial demonstrates new approach to weeding

Jon Excell reports

Earlier this spring, in a chilly corner of a windswept field in Hampshire, the first seeds of what could be a new agricultural revolution were sown, as a UK built precision weeding robot – with more than a passing resemblance to a mechanised alien invader - completed its first set of successful field trials.

Developed by agritech startup the Small Robot company, Dick -as the robot is named - is claimed to be the world’s first non-chemical robotic weeding system for cereal crops.

Designed to destroy weeds at an individual plant level the system is at the vanguard of a new approach to low impact farming, that is tapping into advances in robotics, imaging and artificial intelligence to provide a targeted alternative to the high impact, herbicide-dependent methods that dominate modern farming and which are becoming increasingly unsustainable.  Rather than using chemicals to deal with problem plants, Dick simply despatches them with a blast of high voltage electricity.