The growing world population requires massive agricultural efforts to produce enough food and resources. These efforts can be enormously expensive because things like weeds, diseases, and insects destroy millions of dollars worth of crops. To combat these expensive problems, Solinftec, a Brazilian/American company with offices in Indiana, has come up with a game-changing product: the Solix Sprayer robot.
The machine is similar to a previous product known as the Solix Scout, which can scan crops and report back data. However, the Solix Sprayer robot is taking things to the next level because, in addition to scanning and relaying information, it can spray herbicide on pesky weeds that cost farmers a lot of time and money.
Reducing herbicide usage
In the past, farmers wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the exact location of weeds in a timely manner. So, they would spray virtually all the crops with herbicides (also known as weedkillers) in hopes of preventing damage from weeds. Well, the problem is herbicides contain serious toxins that can harm humans. The dilemma between losing crops due to weeds or using harmful chemicals to protect the crops is a dilemma many farmers and governments struggle to solve.
Luckily, the new weed destroying robot can help identify where herbicides need to be sprayed and where they do not. According to Solinftec, trials done in the United States have shown the Solix Sprayer robot can reduce the usage of herbicide by more than 70%–an impressive number. Of course, viewers should always be cautious of companies putting out exaggerated numbers. However, even if the machine can reduce close to 70% of herbicide use, it would be an extremely impressive feat.
How does it operate?
The Solix Sprayer robot will be fully autonomous and be able to cover around 100 acres of land per day (its overall range will be impacted by the type of terrain it has to cover). In addition to autonomously driving itself, it will have four solar panels attached to the top to power the driving systems, identification technology, and weed spraying systems.
All of the information collected by the agricultural robot will be stored and saved as a multilayered map of the terrain that shows owners which crops were sprayed, plants with nutrient deficiencies, areas with insects, signs of diseases, and more. For the first time, people growing crops will have a digital map of their land with detailed information that can help them solve problems before food and money are lost.
A new kind of agriculture
Solinftec isn’t just creating the Solix Sprayer robot to offer a new tool to farmers. The company wants to revolutionize the efficiency and safety of agriculture using smart technology and change the world by doing so. So far, Solinftec’s machines have proven to be reliable tools that are increasing returns on crops and decreasing the carbon footprint caused by agriculture.
The public will have to wait and see what kind of impact the new agricultural robot has, as the company has announced it will be commercially available in 2023. Check out the Solix Sprayer in action in the following video.
Source: Solinftec
