Robotics for Field Crops?

I have had many opportunities lately to present programs that focused on many aspects of organic and regenerative agriculture and one of my favorite slides is one of Greenfield Robotics and their “yellow” robots working through a row crop field. In fact, I have had a few folks asking about a demonstration of these robots or even a tour to the company in Kansas (Texans don’t mind driving if it is to look at farm equipment!).

Greenfield Robotics was the first company I have seen that has a self-propelled piece of equipment that works in row crops which is by far the majority of the crop acres we need this technology to work on. This equipment also works down the row and keeps working night or day. Just check out the company video below they did just 6 months ago.

I am excited that companies are moving in this direction and that we are starting to see more of them develop technology that will change agriculture for row crop farmers. I was asked to visit about another company getting into this area, Aigen AI Generated Robotics has been doing some development work in sugar beets the Dakotas’ and cotton in California. They have reached out about some possibilities for some research/demonstration work in Texas cotton, in particular organic cotton.

Aigen will deliver, run and maintain the robots throughout the season taking the technical hassle out of the growers’ hands. As I explained to a farmer the other day, until these companies get all the ‘kinks’ out of the system and the technology get better and better developed, leasing the service is probably the best option.

Check out the Aigen YouTube channel for what is coming down the road!

Enjoy some of the other pictures of robots working!! Kinda fun to watch and to think about for Texas farmers – organic and regenerative.

Here is another Robotics Company

The picture above is of the Carbon Robotics LaserWeeder G2 1200 designed for row crops. This is a 16-row model if I counted correctly!

Recently Carbon Robotics was the third company to contact me about their new units for row crops.  They are a big player in the vegetable industry in California, but they reached out lately to tell me about their newest addition for row crops.  Carbon Robotics utilizes both lasers and computers to zap the weeds and not the crop. Laser weeders are a great idea but they have typically been slow and very expensive. As with most technology it is getting better and cheaper.  According to the company they believe they can be as competitive as conventional weed control chemicals per acre.

Check out their latest G2 LaserWeeders here: Carbon Robotics