Application of robots for weed control in arable production

Abstract

Weed control is one of the most important factors in all agricultural plant productions, but especially in arable production due to the large areas where it takes place. After the discovery of highly effective herbicides, weed control in agriculture has been carried out for years almost exclusively by chemical methods, but the intensive use of herbicides has resulted with the serious negative effects on the environment and human health. Rapid advances in electronics, computers and computer technologies and the development of vehicle guidance systems together with the introduction of precision agriculture have opened the possibility of using robotic systems in weed control. In recent years, many robotic weed control systems have been developed with different weed control methods such as selective chemical application, mechanical weed removal, using flame, steam electric discharge and laser. Examples of different versions of robots for weed control are presented in this paper.

Keywords

• robotics
• weeds
• herbicides
• selective chemical application
• mechanical weeding
• laser