Economics of mechanical weeding by a swarm of small field robots

Abstract

Today’s agricultural production systems with large machinery are facing limits due to problems with road regulations, soil compaction, social acceptance as well as nutrient and pest management. At the same time, current developments in the field of digitalization and automatization have the potential to lead to the development of small autonomous agricultural robots for seeding, cultivating and harvesting, which could help to overcome those limitations. This study evaluates a first concept of mechanical weeding by a swarm of small field robots within a new plant production system.