CEO discusses future of automation and data in agriculture
Ag labor is a serious challenge for any grower, and many technology companies seek to provide solutions that help growers do more with less labor. Enter Carbon Robotics, which developed and manufactures LaserWeeder, a towable weeder designed to sense and blast weeds with precision.
In this episode of the "Tip of the Iceberg" podcast, Carbon Robotics founder and CEO Paul Mikesell discusses the rapid growth of his company and how he sees data playing a bigger role for farmers in the future.
Mikesell says LaserWeeder currently works in vegetable fields such as onions, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes and more. While many workers might see the addition of robotics on the farm as taking away jobs, he says that’s not the case.
“The way I see it, it's more supplying the kinds of work capabilities that folks are having a really hard time finding people for,” he said. “I don't like to think about us as supplanting people so much as allowing farmers to get the work done where they can't even find the labor.”
Mikesell says using the LaserWeeder is a change in weed management, in which growers need to deploy the weeder before weeds are established to target the weed in its weakest state. The LaserWeeder uses 30 lasers in the machine as well as a vision system with machine learning that scans the path and shoots and kills any weeds it detects.
“You have to really change your mentality about how early you go in for weed control,” he said. “[The LaserWeeder] can see things humans can't even see.”
Mikesell says another element of using robotics is the data the machine provides as it passes through the fields. LaserWeeder provides heat maps that show where the strongest instances of weeds are.
“In a lot of cases, you can see where the weeds are actually coming from,” he said.
Also interesting, he says, is that the weeder can provide crop counts and the growth stage.
“This information allows growers to understand how well the crops are doing in different fields and make predictions about when they think it's going to be harvestable and potentially what they should set for their harvest time,” he said.
To listen to this episode, using the embedding player above or click this link.
