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Meet ‘Tom’: The weed-spotting robot that could slash blanket herbicide spraying
Dec. 12, 2019
A National Trust estate farm has brought in a robot called Tom to map its weeds.
The robot's mapping capability allows operators to target herbicides more accurately, ending the need for blanket spraying with chemicals.
Tom is fitted with two downward-facing cameras and has sensors to detect obstacles as it trundles around.
Powered by electricity, with a four-hour battery life, the 150kg prototype can map 50 acres per day.
Callum Weir, farm manager at the Wimpole Estate, Cambridgeshire, said the robot cuts fuel, fertiliser and herbicide costs – and benefits the environment too.
As Tom weighs far less than a traditional seven-tonne tractor, soils also suffer less compaction, he said.
“The beauty of the robot is that it gives me absolute precision,” said Mr Weir.
“It can map every centimetre of the field and give me recommendations for different parts of the field.”
The National Trust hires Tom four times per growing season from the Small Robot Company (SRC), Salisbury.
Two further robots – to be called Dick and Harry – are in the early stages of development by the company.
One will zap weeds with an electrical charge and the other will enable precision planting.
Working with the company Rootwave, SRC hopes the “zapping robot” will remove the need for chemical weedkillers altogether.
It is hoped Tom and Dick will be commercially available in 2021.
SRC co-founder Sam Watson-Jones said: “Farmers are the same as any other group of people in that you always have early adopters.”
Wimpole, the Trust’s only in-house farm, is a 1,500-acre organic holding which grows wheat, rye, oats and barley.
The technology is also being demonstrated to the organisation’s 1,700 tenant farmers.
Rob Macklin, the Trust’s head of farming , said agri-tech has a role in tackling issues such as soil health, carbon sequestration, biodiversity declines and reducing fossil fuel use.
“Technology needs to play a big part in solving many of the issues we currently face in farming," he added.
Source: DailyPost
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