AgriBot: An Autonomous Weeder Robot

Sherif, Aya; El-Abasy, Ibrahim; Osama, Mohamed

doi:10.21608/iugrc.2022.302733

AgriBot: An Autonomous Weeder Robot

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Kafr El-Shiekh University, Egypt.

10.21608/iugrc.2022.302733

Abstract

For thousands of decades, agriculture has been one of the most important sectors in the development of Egyptian civilization. And with the recent advancement of technology and the need for increasing sustainability autonomous robots will play a huge role in the future of agriculture—especially in weeding applications. Weeding is necessary because weeds compete with the main crop plant for different factors such as water, sunlight, nutrients, and space, hence affecting plant growth. Traditional weeding methods usually use chemicals in an excessive way that causes lots of damage to the crops and has a negative impact on both, the environment, and human health. In addition, it requires a lot of manpower and unnecessary costs. Modern technology must be applied to solve such issues while keeping farmers competitive. A design of a robot is proposed to reduce herbicides input in the field to its minimum while in parallel trying to provide cost, time, and fuel economies. Our project—in the form of an autonomous robot that aims to get rid of weeds with the use of a micro-dose of herbicides— robot represents a major innovation in weeding methods. It is 100% autonomous. It can detect the weed with high precision in order to spray the herbicide on them directly without affecting the crops. Furthermore, it uses less herbicide to reduce the costs and the environmental impact. Plus, the robot will be powered by a renewable source of energy—solar energy—to help reduce carbon emissions and improve sustainability.

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