AgBot II is equipped with cameras, sensors and software and is designed to work in autonomous groups to navigate, detect and classify weeds and manage them either chemically or mechanically as well as apply fertilizer for site specific crop management.
It was designed so it can be transported as a flat pack and assembled like Ikea furniture and carries 200 litres of herbicide as well as mechanical hoes. Agbot II also knows when it’s tired and will find its way home to recharge when its battery is low.
Such a gorgeous machine! I am so proud to have been part of the team that made this technology possible.
I think the best thing about the AgBot II project was how it captured people’s imaginations. It wasn’t some abstract piece of research. It was a machine people could see us using in the future. It was akin to a product on a showroom floor. It was always great to see it in action going up and down crop rows collecting data.
My one regret was that none of my code ended up on the final version of the machine and all I did was use the data it collected.