Last week, Pixelfarming Robotics spent an inspiring and productive week at Agritechnica, the world’s leading trade fair for agricultural technology. Hosted at the NL Pavilion, we had the opportunity to showcase Robot One to thousands of growers, innovators, partners, and curious onlookers from every corner of the world.

Throughout the week, we spoke with growers working in vegetables, arable crops, orchards, and even specialty crops. Despite the differences in climate, size, and production methods, they shared the same challenges:

• labour shortages
• rising production costs
• increasing pressure to reduce chemical use

At Pixelfarming Robotics, we want to provide growers a solution to the problems above. We do this with our autonomous laser weeding robot called Robot One. While it autonomously roams the field, it detects weeds and eradicates them with a precise laser beam.

The advantage of laserweeding

Laser weeding has many advantages over conventional weeding methods. Compared to weeding with herbicides, laser leaves no harmful residues on the plant nor in the soil. Laser weeding works by heating the water inside the plant cells. The water boils, starts to expand and bursts the cells. All of this happens within a fraction of a second. This short burst of laser energy renders the plant incapable of continuing its growth.

Many organic growers employ large crews for manual weeding. They are effective in the sense that they can accurately clear weeds from the field. However, the cost of labor is rising while the availability of workers dwindles. The autonomous capabilities of Robot One let it work nearly twenty-four hours a day without interruption.

Mechanical weeding solves the labor problem but it is limited in its accuracy and it disturbs the top soil. The open soil invites bacteria and pests. Laser weeding is non-disruptive to the soil and delivers millimeter precision.

Robot One continues to stand out

During the countless conversation it became clear that Robot One’s vision and value proposition resonate more strongly than ever. It is focused on sustainability, autonomy and independence for growers.

With Robot One, growers have ownership over their data and plant models. They can easily train or refine their own plantmodels during the growing season without need for extra subscriptions. This gives the grower control and independence from the manufacturer.

A strong week for autonomous farming

Agritechnica confirmed that the movement towards a more autonomous, precise and regenerative agricultural sector has gained a strong momentum. Solutions like Robot One give farmers the option to farm more efficiently and sustainably. The growers who currently own and operate Robot One are the gamechangers who drive this movement forward.

We look forward to welcome new gamechangers and continue to improve. You can become the next gamechanger.