Weeds are the bane of all farmers. They compete with crops for soil moisture and nutrients and can block out sunlight needed for crop growth, reducing yields. Over the last five decades, chemical eradication has become the method of choice for controlling weeds. It is common for farmers to spray or otherwise apply several weed-killing chemicals to their fields in a single season. Now agricultural robots that remove weeds are becoming more common.

Several companies are bringing agricultural robots to market that control weeds mechanically, the way farmers used to do with hundreds of hours of backbreaking labor. One of them is Greenfield Robotics, started by Clint Brauer, a former California-based tech executive who moved back to his family farm in central Kansas after his father developed Parkinson’s disease. He sees the robots as critical tools to help farmers reduce their reliance on chemicals and be more protective of their health and the environment.

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