zempter t1_ixpkyyg wrote on November 25, 2022 at 8:05 AM

Reply to comment by Dickmusha in A cheap $200 solar-power plastic robot that destroys weeds, shows that global agriculture can dramatically reduce the chemicals used in farming, and reduce the 45% of crops lost to pests. by lughnasadh

It's not nearly as far fetched as you are making it sound. But never in the near future will you be able to operate out of such a small system, especially a small solar panel.

Image recognition AI is pretty good these days though, and lazer tech can cut through a lot of materials, so it's really just a matter of having a strong power source, and a more expensive set of equipment.

akusokuZAN t1_ixpmv3p wrote on November 25, 2022 at 8:32 AM

I literally dreamed of this, back when we had an orchard and it was a really painstaking process to remove all the weeds between the grape vines/rows. A strong laser shooting down the row with a hard surface at the end.

But as the weed is cut and falls down, it'd get in the way and my dream soon turned into a fire nightmare :)

Dickmusha t1_ixrjdpi wrote on November 25, 2022 at 7:37 PM

None of that will work in real life. That works in farming videogames. I live a city away from farm land. That idea is not going to work its not that simple and it will never be. You need a thinking machine making actual decisions to to do anything close to this.