Lasers replace herbicides: farms are going robotic

Autonomous robots find weeds with AI and destroy them with a laser, cutting pesticides by roughly 70%.

In California, farmers are using autonomous robots that locate weeds with AI and destroy them with a laser. Cameras and computer vision analyse the field in real time — with no chemicals.

Pesticide use has fallen by roughly 70%, and savings reach hundreds of dollars per acre. But the main effect is the changing role of the human: manual labour gives way to managing a fleet of machines.

Farm robotics is no longer limited to driverless tractors — individual agronomic decisions are being automated. The farmer is increasingly becoming the operator of a high-tech system.