A New Robot Kills Weeds, And Could End The Need For Herbicides On Farms

The robots have learned how to kill. Thankfully, for now, that killing is confined to weeds in fields. A new robot from Bosch, the German company best known for making power tools and car parts, can travel through crop fields, learn what weeds look like, and crush them. The robot, called the BoniRob, is the result of research by Bosch’s Deepfield Robotics division, in partnership with the German food and agriculture department, Osnabrück University, and Amazone, an agricultural machinery manufacturer. According to Popular Mechanics, the robot can identify targets with such speed, it’s almost impossible to see how quickly it can pound weeds into the earth.