Laser Weeder?

OhioGardener 6/27/2023, 11:50 am

AI has brought laser technology to agriculture to robotically kill weeds in fields of vegetables. Will laser technology soon be the way for the home gardener to rid their beds of weeds? Very Happy

Farming robot kills 200,000 weeds per hour with lasers

markqz 6/27/2023, 12:28 pm

Interesting! Lasers are famously energy intensive. I imagine the bulk of that machine is a diesel generator to power them. Wonder what the carbon footprint is?

If a machine can kill weeds with lasers, couldn't we have hand powered lasers to kill weeds? It would make weeding more sexy if it resembled playing some sort of futuristic video game. It's the 21st century, where's my phaser?!

OhioGardener 6/27/2023, 1:11 pm

markqz wrote:Interesting! Lasers are famously energy intensive. I imagine the bulk of that machine is a diesel generator to power them. Wonder what the carbon footprint is?

Well, as an engineer, that made me curious, so I went to the company site to find out. Yep, it is powered by a Cummins 2.8L Turbo Diesel.

If a machine can kill weeds with lasers, couldn't we have hand powered lasers to kill weeds? It would make weeding more sexy if it resembled playing some sort of futuristic video game. It's the 21st century, where's my phaser?!

Something tells me that technology is not too far into the future. From their site, "Lasers can be used to kill weeds by delivering high-powered bursts of light energy to the plant's leaves. This energy causes the water in the leaves to vaporize, which kills the plant." How difficult will it be to put that power into a handheld device?

**sanderson** 6/28/2023, 2:47 am

Well, we already have tertill. Turtle? The video states its best with plants 1' apart. But, no straw mulch and of course, we couldn't have surface grids or drip lines. Other than that, it sounds perfect. Razz

https://tertill.com/

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