A project at UC-Davis aims to develop a robotic cultivator that can do the equivalent of hand weeding, excising weeds as they sprout among rows of newly emerged crops. “They’re developing a ‘smart’ cultivator with small knives that reach out to uproot weeds and retract to keep crops intact,” says a university release. David Slaughter, a professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering says machines already can distinguish between a weed and a food plant but they have trouble telling them apart when they are co-mingled and when moving at typical tractor speeds for field work. The new machine would benefit vegetable growers in California and beyond, says the release.
The team envisions putting an inert fluorescent coating on seeds. so that when they emerge, they will have a faint fluorescent glow that sensors on the cultivator can detect. The coating would disappear as plant grow and become tall enough or put out enough leaves to out-compete the weeds. “The new cultivator should move more quickly through a field than current vision-sensor models,” says UC-Davis.