Carbon Robotics LaserWeeder

What it's for

The LaserWeeder is not a standalone robot but an implement towed behind a tractor - and that is precisely what sets it apart from most of the machines we usually associate with agricultural robotics. Working width is 6.01 m (20 ft), and under the beam work 42 high-resolution cameras and 30 diode lasers of 150 W each. Artificial intelligence - more than a hundred models trained on specific crops - recognizes a weed in real time and destroys it thermally. Instead of a sprayer and herbicide there is a pulse of light; the manufacturer claims effectiveness of up to 99% and more than 5,000 shots per minute.

Weeds emerge together with the crop, hand weeding costs more and more and it is ever harder to find people to do it, and chemicals are not always desirable - in organic farming they are ruled out altogether. The LaserWeeder drives through the rows and "burns out" the unwanted plants without touching the soil and without using any plant protection products. Capacity falls in the range of 0.20-0.61 ha per hour, depending on weed density; at ten hours of work a day that gives about 2-6 ha, which shows that this is a tool for precision work, not a replacement for heavy equipment.

The focus is on large vegetable and field crops: the system goes to more than a hundred farms in North America, Europe and Australia. Unlike small weeding robots such as Naio Oz, which cope with finer crops without a tractor, the LaserWeeder needs a base machine of at least 175 hp (90 hp at the PTO) and does not work without one. The broader picture is described in “Robots in Farming: How Field Automation Looks in Poland”; the use in agriculture also connects with sprayers such as Ecorobotix ARA.

Who it's for

Best suited to: large vegetable and field-crop farms that already have a tractor of adequate power, struggle with the cost of manual labor and want to reduce herbicides - for example because they sell to buyers with requirements on plant protection products. Also service companies that can spread the machine's cost across many farms.

A poor fit: small farms and gardeners - not only because of the price but also because of scale: a machine six meters wide needs suitable fields and room to turn. Those without a 175 hp tractor, because buying a tractor is a separate large expense. In Poland no distributor or users have been confirmed, so service and training would have to come directly from Carbon Robotics. Smaller-scale farming will find more in Naio Oz and in the piece on “Robots in Farming: How Field Automation Looks in Poland”. For a private garden, the overview in gardens is useful.

Deployments

According to the manufacturer, more than a hundred farms in North America, Europe and Australia use the LaserWeeder. We do not, however, have a list of specific customers or the results of independent studies, so we treat the "up to 99%" effectiveness as a manufacturer's claim.

What is in the category? Small robots such as Naio Oz are meant for vegetable growing without a tractor, and precision sprayers such as Ecorobotix ARA cut chemical use. A detailed overview of agricultural robotics in Poland is in “Robots in Farming: How Field Automation Looks in Poland” and in the category “Specialist robots”. A Polish farmer thinking about such equipment should therefore ask the manufacturer for references from a climate similar to ours, for service in Europe and for parts delivery times.

Naio Oz - a French robot for sowing and weeding in vegetable growing, 60 kg payload, up to 8 hours of work, price on request. Choose it when crops are finer and you do not want a tractor.

Ecorobotix ARA - a precision sprayer that recognizes more than 50 weed species and cuts herbicide use by up to 95%. It does not eliminate chemistry, but reduces it to a minimum; manufacturer: Ecorobotix.

The producer of Naio Oz is Naio Technologies - direct your questions about availability in Poland to them.

Note: our catalog contains only three agricultural models, so the real alternative is often classic mechanical or hand weeding, which we do not describe here. The choice depends on scale: the larger the field and the higher the cost of manual labor, the more attractive the LaserWeeder becomes; the smaller and more varied the crops, the better a small robot or a precision sprayer looks. Also compare the category “Specialist robots”.

The LaserWeeder reached the market in February 2022 - both the presentation date and the start of sales are 2022-02. The manufacturer, the American company Carbon Robotics, offers the system in successive generations: the manufacturer's site shows, among others, a version labeled G2, illustrated with a photo from a spinach field in Yuma.

The idea of laser weeding grew out of the need to reduce chemicals and labor costs in vegetable crops. Only a few years after launch, the system has reached more than a hundred farms on three continents. Changes in agriculture and robotization are covered in the piece “Robots in Farming: How Field Automation Looks in Poland”.