Re:The Farm Automation Breakthrough
by frv103 on Sunday July 28, 2019 @04:58PM
(#20549807)
This seems like kind of a fluff piece, I don’t see any details about the actual technology. The whole article is about how proud the company is to be partnering with midwestern farmers. Can anyone provide a link or more information about how they are able to distinguish weed from crops, and by what mechanical process the weeds are removed?
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:The Farm Automation Breakthrough
by rohan_shah on Sunday July 28, 2019 @06:47PM
(#20550243)
Will share links once I find them.
But the technology is: A library of weed images is used to check if the thing visual to the camera is a weed. If it is, then pluck it or spray chemicals (here: pluck).If not, move on.
Isn't this creating huge selection pressure for weird-looking weeds?
Re:The Farm Automation Breakthrough
by greatpatton on Monday July 29, 2019 @05:56AM
(#20552970)
I don't know about them but here we have a small company (founded 2012) in Switzerland doing the same (but with something less bulky...): https://www.ecorobotix.com/en/autonomous-robot-weeder/
Same I can’t find any details on the mechanical mechanism they remove the weeds with. That seems like as much if not bigger challenge than identifying the weeds.
Re:The Farm Automation Breakthrough
by rohan_shah on Sunday July 28, 2019 @11:46PM
(#20551374)
I don't think the mechanical mechanism is that hard.
Once they detect a weed ahead, they could just lower a small plough-like thing in worst case scenario. Or a pinch could go down, grab the weed and go up.
But yes, they seem be secretive about the working.