Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers

Re:Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers by Broken_Hippo on Monday April 26, 2021 @10:49AM (#26943087)

Mechanical parts have more ways to break. All of those rocks in the field are just waiting to crunch things up.

How long will weeds live if they continuously get their foiliage removed? How about when part of the root (closest to the surface) is damaged/burned as well?

I really don't know, but I imagine that if such a robot went out into the field many or most days, there wouldn't be much of an issue. The weeds would continually get weaker.

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Re:Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers by gdubs on Monday April 26, 2021 @10:59AM (#26943187)

Tractors break, sure, but steel implements have been doing a pretty good job of handling rocky soil for a very long time.

Fixing a blue steel corkscrew seems easier than debugging a laser.

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Re:Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers by Broken_Hippo on Monday April 26, 2021 @03:30PM (#26946914)

I very highly doubt that a farmer is generally going to debug a laser on the spot. That requires a skill set not really needed to be a farmer, and who knows how long it'll take.

Realistically, a farmer would swap out the part.

Any actual work on the laser is more likely to be done by a trained professional, if anything to cut down on accidental burns.

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Re:Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers by kickout on Monday April 26, 2021 @02:23PM (#26946056)

Correct and also you (should) benefit from the main cash crop outcompeting the weed, eventually. Just hope it doesn't go to seed before it dies

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Re:Farming robot kills 100k weeds per hour with lasers by visarga on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @06:40AM (#26954201)

> cash crop outcompeting the weed

I thought weed was the cash crop. /s

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