Armed with lasers and blades and programmed to destroy all weeds, A.I. ag robots are coming to Colorado
Self-driving Teslas are neat but lack the functionality any forward-looking farmer would want in a cutting-edge autonomous vehicle: specifically, really sharp cutting-edges and high-powered lasers capable of incinerating 50 weeds per second.
In the not-so-distant future, as Colorado fruit and vegetable growers continue their struggle to recruit, retain and afford enough farm workers to weed and harvest their produce, a once unthinkable option is on the table. The latest crop of agricultural robots are beginning to fill the gaps left by farm labor shortages.
“The technology might seem totally sci-fi,” says Adrian Card, CSU Extension’s statewide specialty crop expert, “but that future is already here, it’s becoming a reality.”
Although replicating the dexterity of human hands to harvest crops continues to be a daunting task, destroying weeds has proven to be lower-hanging fruit.
With AI vision, machine learning, high-powered carbon dioxide lasers, and dizzying arrays of oscillating blades, these robots have been designed to inflict maximum devastation on unsuspecting weeds.
The largest models boast the capability to clear two acres of weeds in an hour, leaving neat rows of untouched produce in their wake.
Earlier this summer, in a first-of-its-kind event for Colorado, a range of autonomous weeding technologies were on display in Rocky Ford as part of a demonstration organized by Card.
Who the technology is for
For the past few years, Card has been immersed in the world of autonomous farming technology, working to better understand how these innovations could help Colorado producers and bringing ag-tech leaders to the state to share their insights.
“Our goal is to get growers in Colorado aware of, and connected with, this technology so that they can make the best decision for their farm for sustainability and for profitability,” said Card in an interview with KSIR.
“CSU will continue to walk with growers and help them explore and adopt this [technology].”
– Adrian Card, CSU Extension statewide specialty crop expert
For Colorado fruit and vegetable producers, labor costs can account for up to 50% of their total operating expenses, according to preliminary data collected by Card and Ali Hill, Ph.D., an assistant professor with CSU’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
“Farms that have large payroll costs are going to find this the most attractive,” continued Card. “The robotics companies are trying to find a price point that has a return on investment for many farms within about three years.”
The price of the different technologies varies, but the most advanced options – such as the laser weeder – will likely be hard to justify for small and mid-sized operations, according to Card.
“This doesn’t have to be all million-dollar machines, it is possible to come up with some cost-effective solutions,” said Steve Fennimore, a UC Davis weed scientist, during a presentation on autonomous weeders organized by Card.
“There’s a whole new set of technologies that’s just emerging and I think it has room to run for a long time,” added Fennimore.
Rocky Ford demonstration event
Carbon Robotics (Seattle, Washington), Stout Ag Tech (Salinas, California), Barn Owl Precision Agriculture (La Junta, Colorado), Verdant Robotics (San Francisco Bay Area) and Naio Technologies (France) all participated in the June 16 event in Rocky Ford, Colorado organized by CSU Extension.
The impact on farm labor markets
For over a hundred years, the number of people required to work in the fields to make a farm functional has been precipitously dropping as technology has advanced from horse-drawn plows to the countless innovations that producers have access to today.
In 1870, the year CSU was founded, more than 50% of workers in the United States were in the agriculture industry. Today, that number is 10%, with only 1 in 10 of those workers employed directly on farms.
Extension’s Card sees agricultural robots, and the economic pressures on farm operators, contributing to that trend.
“Automated weeders are less regulated than herbicides… less regulations allow for more innovation.”
– Steve Fennimore, Ph.D., UC Davis weed scientist
“[Farm operators] love the people that they work with and the thought of needing to replace their workers because of cost – to replace humans with machines – it kind of bums them out, to be frank,” said Card in his interview with KSIR.
But with the slow adoption of robots on farms, he doesn’t see a doomsday scenario for farm workers anytime soon.
“Even as the technology continues to progress, and becomes more affordable and widely accessible, you need people in the decision-making loop, you need them to perform maintenance and support the operations,” Card said.
“In most instances, we’re going to see people working alongside advanced technologies, but that workforce will likely continue to shrink,” he continued.
Card compared the choice of working as a farm laborer to working in grocery stores, where the starting salaries are roughly the same, but supermarkets gain an edge by offering air-conditioning.
“Weeding crops is a demanding job that isn’t in high demand among workers,” said Card. “From a broader perspective, these automated technologies will help farms stay viable and continue contributing to their local economies by providing jobs, even if there are less of them.”