Laser weed control: from prototypes to commercial solutions

(Photo: Carbon Robotics)

While 2 years ago only one manufacturer marketed laser weed control, today at least 8 manufacturers have products available, and most of them can deliver this year. Below, we would like to summarize the key technological parameters of 8 laser weed control devices that are already commercially available, making the individual models comparable.

Market-ready agricultural innovation: commercially available laser weed control devices

Although laser weed control technologies have been experimented with since the early 1990s, it has only been in recent years that research and development has become a strong focus, based on the needs of producers and machine distributors. The LaserWeeder, manufactured by Carbon Robotics, was launched in February 2022 as the world’s first commercial tractor-towed laser weeder. Today, several machines are in operation in Europe, North America and Australia. Since its launch, Carbon Robotics has already changed technology twice. The developers switched from an autonomous agricultural robot to a model that can be mounted on a tractor 3 years ago, and last year to a different type of laser technology. The second-generation machine, the LaserWeeder G2, is not only radically different from the first generation (G1) in terms of optics. The manufacturer switched from CO₂ lasers to infrared diode lasers. This is because, according to the developers’ experience, diode lasers are more powerful and more robust: the glass tubes of CO₂ lasers were vulnerable and depreciated during use, which necessitated early replacement of the tubes.

In the 3 years since LaserWeeder entered the market, numerous developments and prototype tests have been nearing completion or have been successfully completed

Accordingly, laser weeders have appeared in the offer of several machine manufacturers. For example, the German Digital Workbench will start testing the weeder laser modules this year, with which it plans to enter the market by the end of 2026. The laser weeder module of Nature Robots, another German agricultural robot manufacturer, is also in the final testing phase, as is the case with the Dutch Luxeed Robotics. The new tractor-mounted laser weeder from the Greek Terra Robotics, on the other hand, is already available with 2, 3 or 4 modules, each with 2 lasers. The price of the version with 3 modules will be 250,000-300,000 euros.

NAK