83. WeedElec: a robotic research platform for individual weed detection and selective electrical weeding

Abstract

The project 'WeedElec' aims at developing a robotic intra-row weeding solution based on a highvoltage selective electrocution. lt performs the following tasks: weed detection and location, positioning of the weeding probe according to location results and electrical destruction of weeds. The detection is achieved using an RGB camera associated with the deep-learning solution of the 'Pl@ntNet' team. Discrimination results between crops and weeds attained 76% accuracy for maize and 62% for beans (field trials) . Mortality rates weeds ranged from 75% (Polygonaceae) to 13% (Brassicaceae) for plants less than one month old (laboratory conditions). Survivors were nevertheless impacted with a severe limitation of their growth.