{"id":678833,"date":"2025-07-06T22:15:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T19:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ai-robots-fill-in-for-weed-killers-and-farm-hands\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T22:15:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T19:15:18","slug":"ai-robots-fill-in-for-weed-killers-and-farm-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ai-robots-fill-in-for-weed-killers-and-farm-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"AI robots fill in for weed killers and farm hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a25dca3a2892\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a25dca3a2892\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ai-robots-fill-in-for-weed-killers-and-farm-hands\/#Future_giant\" >Future giant?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/aigens-solar-powered-a.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/aigens-solar-powered-a.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Aigen's solar-powered autonomous robots aim to take the chemicals and toil out of industrial weeding.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/aigens-solar-powered-a.jpg\" alt=\"Aigen's solar-powered autonomous robots aim to take the chemicals and toil out of industrial weeding\" title=\"Aigen's solar-powered autonomous robots aim to take the chemicals and toil out of industrial weeding.\" width=\"800\" height=\"516\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                Aigen&#8217;s solar-powered autonomous robots aim to take the chemicals and toil out of industrial weeding.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Oblivious to the punishing midday heat, a wheeled robot powered by the sun and infused with artificial intelligence carefully combs a cotton field in California, plucking out weeds.<\/p>\n<p>As farms across the United States face a shortage of laborers and weeds grow resistant to herbicides, startup Aigen says its robotic solution\u2014named Element\u2014can save farmers money, help the environment and keep harmful chemicals out of food.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I really believe this is the biggest thing we can do to improve human health,&#8221; co-founder and chief <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> officer Richard Wurden told AFP, as robots made their way through crops at Bowles Farm in the town of Los Banos.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everybody&#8217;s eating food sprayed with chemicals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wurden, a mechanical engineer who spent five years at Tesla, went to work on the robot after relatives who farm in Minnesota told him weeding was a costly bane.<\/p>\n<p>Weeds are becoming immune to herbicides, but a shortage of laborers often leaves chemicals as the only viable option, according to Wurden.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No farmer that we&#8217;ve ever talked to said &#8216;I&#8217;m in love with chemicals&#8217;,&#8221; added Aigen co-founder and chief executive Kenny Lee, whose background is in software.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They use it because it&#8217;s a tool\u2014we&#8217;re trying to create an alternative.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/aigen-ceo-kenny-lee-an.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/aigen-ceo-kenny-lee-an.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Aigen CEO Kenny Lee and CTO of Aigen Richard Wurden hope to win over typically conservative farmers with their climate-friendly tech.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/aigen-ceo-kenny-lee-an.jpg\" alt=\"Aigen CEO Kenny Lee and CTO of Aigen Richard Wurden hope to win over typically conservative farmers with their climate-friendly tech\" title=\"Aigen CEO Kenny Lee and CTO of Aigen Richard Wurden hope to win over typically conservative farmers with their climate-friendly tech.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                Aigen CEO Kenny Lee and CTO of Aigen Richard Wurden hope to win over typically conservative farmers with their climate-friendly tech.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Element the robot resembles a large table on wheels, solar panels on top. Metal arms equipped with small blades reach down to hoe between crop plants.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It actually mimics how humans work,&#8221; Lee said as the temperature hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) under a cloudless sky.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When the sun goes down, it just powers down and goes to sleep; then in the morning it comes back up and starts going again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The robot&#8217;s AI system takes in data from on-board cameras, allowing it to follow crop rows and identify weeds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you think this is a job that we want humans doing, just spend two hours in the field weeding,&#8221; Wurden said.<\/p>\n<p>Aigen&#8217;s vision is for workers who once toiled in the heat to be &#8220;upskilled&#8221; to monitor and troubleshoot robots.<\/p>\n<p>Along with the on-board AI, robots communicate wirelessly with small control centers, notifying handlers of mishaps.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/aigen-was-chosen-for-a.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/aigen-was-chosen-for-a.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Aigen was chosen for Amazon Web Services' 'Compute for Climate' fellowship program that provides AI tools, data center power, and technical help for startups tackling environmental woes.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/aigen-was-chosen-for-a.jpg\" alt=\"Aigen was chosen for Amazon Web Services' 'Compute for Climate' fellowship program that provides AI tools, data center power, and technical help for startups tackling environmental woes\" title=\"Aigen was chosen for Amazon Web Services' 'Compute for Climate' fellowship program that provides AI tools, data center power, and technical help for startups tackling environmental woes.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                Aigen was chosen for Amazon Web Services&#8217; &#8216;Compute for Climate&#8217; fellowship program that provides AI tools, data center power, and technical help for startups tackling environmental woes.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                                                                                        <!-- TechX - News - In-article --><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Future_giant\"><\/span>Future giant?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Aigen has robots running in tomato, cotton, and sugar beet fields, and touts the technology&#8217;s ability to weed without damaging the crops.<\/p>\n<p>Lee estimated that it takes about five robots to weed 160 acres (65 hectares) of farm.<\/p>\n<p>The robots made by the 25-person startup\u2014based in the city of Redmond, outside Seattle\u2014are priced at $50,000.<\/p>\n<p>The company is focused on winning over politically conservative farmers with a climate friendly option that relies on the sun instead of costly diesel fuel that powers heavy machinery.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Climate, the word, has become politicized but when you get really down to brass tacks farmers care about their land,&#8221; Lee said.<\/p>\n<p>The technology caught the attention of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the e-commerce giant&#8217;s cloud computing unit.<\/p>\n<p>Aigen was chosen for AWS&#8217;s &#8220;Compute for Climate&#8221; fellowship program that provides AI tools, data center power, and technical help for startups tackling environmental woes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Aigen is going to be one of the industry giants in the future,&#8221; said AWS head of climate tech startups business development Lisbeth Kaufman.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think about Ford and the Model T, or Edison and the light bulb\u2014that&#8217;s Kenny and Rich and Aigen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-main__note mt-4\">\n                                                \u00a9 2025 AFP\n                                            <\/p>\n<p>                                        <!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>\n                                                <strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n                                                AI robots fill in for weed killers and farm hands (2025, July 6)<br \/>\n                                                retrieved 6 July 2025<br \/>\n                                                from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>\/2025-07-ai-robots-weed-killers-farm.html\n                                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                            This document is subject to copyright. 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Oblivious to the punishing midday heat, a wheeled robot powered by the sun and infused with artificial intelligence carefully combs a cotton field in California, plucking out weeds. As farms across the United States face a shortage of laborers and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":678834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/aigens-solar-powered-a.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}