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Agriculture has traditionally been regarded as one of the most conservative sectors of the economy. Yet it is precisely here that one of today’s most significant technological transformations is taking place. In California, farmers are increasingly deploying autonomous robots that identify weeds using artificial intelligence and eliminate them with lasers.
The system operates in a remarkably straightforward manner. Cameras and computer vision algorithms analyse plants across the field in real time. Once a weed has been identified, the robot directs a laser beam at the target and destroys the unwanted vegetation without the use of chemical treatments.
According to participants in these projects, pesticide use has been reduced by approximately 70 per cent, while savings on certain plots have reached several hundred dollars per acre. Even these figures, however, are not the most important consequence of the changes currently under way.
The key impact lies in the changing role of human workers. Traditional field labour is gradually giving way to the management of fleets of autonomous machinery. Rather than manual work, skills related to configuration, maintenance and the analysis of data collected by robots are becoming increasingly valuable.
For developed economies, this is particularly important against a backdrop of agricultural labour shortages and rising labour costs. Automation makes it possible to maintain production volumes even as the available workforce declines.
The practical conclusion is clear: the robotisation of agriculture is no longer limited to autonomous tractors. Individual agronomic decisions that previously required human involvement are now being automated as well. In the coming years, farmers will increasingly act as operators of sophisticated technological systems rather than as direct performers of fieldwork.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/farming-meets-ai-california-farmers-cut-pesticide-use-by-70-and-save-250-per-acre-with-laser-robots/articleshow/131735380.cms
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