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Ag Tech: Bosch robot gets rid of weeds automatically.
Stuttgart and Renningen, Germany: Bosch subsidiary Deepfield Robotics is in late development and research stages for their Bonirob farm-bot.
Advances in plant breeding and technical innovations will continue to be necessary in order to feed the growing global population. This is where Bosch’s “Bonirob” agricultural robot can play a part.
A robotics expert and general manager of the Bosch start-up Deepfield Robotics, Professor Amos Albert says “We are leveraging our expertise in sensor technology, algorithms, and image recognition to make a contribution to improving quality of life, even in areas that are new for Bosch.”
Along with innovative agricultural technology and improved crop protection, more efficient plant breeding will play a particularly important role. In this area, Bonirob automates and speeds up analysis.
The robot, which is approximately the size of a compact car, uses video- and lidar-based positioning as well as satellite navigation to find its way around the fields. It knows its position to the nearest centimetre. It also helps minimize the environmental impact of crop farming.
This robot have some specialities like,
-Environment sensors and image processing in plant breeding. The Bosch agricultural robot’s automatic image recognition can help here. Albert says “Algorithms analyse the photos taken by scanners and cameras. This automatic screening saves a lot of time and effort.”
-Weed control with minimum environmental impact. On the basis of leaf shape, Bonirob can distinguish between crops and weeds. With the help of a rod, it gets rid of weeds mechanically, rather than with weed killer.
-Increasing intelligence through machine learning. This involves a large number of image files in which the Bosch researchers highlight the weeds. “Over time, based on parameters such as leaf colour, shape, and size, Bonirob learns how to differentiate more and more accurately between the plants we want and the plants we don’t want,” Albert says.