Forgetting the punishing daytime heat, the sun drives and artificial intelligence-infused wheeled robots are carefully handling California cotton fields and picking weeds.
With US farms becoming more resistant to herbicides and weeds being resistant to herbicides, startup Eigen says its robotic solutions (elements) can save farmers money, help the environment, and protect harmful chemicals from food.
“We really believe this is the biggest thing we can do to improve human health,” co-founder and chief technology officer Richard Warden told AFP to help the robots produce crops at Bowles Farm in the town of Los Banos.
“Everyone eats food that is spraying chemicals.”
Wurden, a mechanical engineer who spent five years at Tesla, went to work on robots after a Minnesota farm said herbicides were expensive banese.
Weeds are immune to herbicides, but a shortage of workers often leaves chemicals as the only viable option, according to Wurden.
“No farmer has ever said we've ever said, 'I'm in love with chemicals,'” added Kenny Lee, co-founder and CEO of Aigen.
“They use it because it's a tool – we're trying to create alternatives.”
Element robots resemble a solar panel on a large table of wheels. Metal arms with small blades allow hairs to reach between crops.
“It really mimics how humans work,” Lee said the temperature hits 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) under a cloudless sky.
“When the sun sets, it just keeps the power down and goes to sleep. Then in the morning it comes back and starts moving forward again.”
The robot's AI system takes data from onboard cameras and allows us to follow a crop row and identify weeds.
“If you think this is the job we want from humans, then you just have to spend two hours weeding the fields,” Wurden said.
Eigen's vision is to once struggle in the heat and get it to “height” to monitor and troubleshoot the robot.
In addition to onboard AI, the robot communicates wirelessly with a small control center and notifies the handler of an accident.
Aigen has a robot that runs on tomatoes, cotton and sugarbeat fields, touting the ability of its technology to weed and not damage crops.
Lee estimated that about five robots would be needed on a 160 acre (65 hectares) farm.
The robot, created by 25 startups based in Redmond, a suburb of Seattle, costs $50,000.
The company focuses on attracting politically conservative farmers with climate-friendly options that rely on the sun instead of expensive diesel fuel that drives heavy machines.
“The climate, the word, has been politicized, but when you really fall into a brass tack, the farmers care about their land,” Lee said.
The technology attracted the attention of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing unit for e-commerce giants.
Aigen has been selected for AWS' Compute for Climate Fellowship Program, providing technical help to startups tackling AI tools, data center power, and environmental struggles.
“Eigen will be one of the industry giants of the future,” said Lisbeth Kaufman, AWS Head of Climate Technology Startup Business Development.
“I'm thinking about Ford and the Model T, or Edison and the light bulbs. That's Kenny, Rich and Eigen.”
