Reducing herbicide usage dramatically with Farmdroid robot

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900 meters per hour

The robot does its job completely independently. At a speed of 900 meters per hour, the sugar beet seeds are placed in the ground to an accuracy of less than a centimeter, according to the pre-programmed grid.

Immediately afterwards, a ‘shot’ of soil herbicide (Centium + Goltix) is applied above each individual seed, a round radius of 5 cm. Compared to full-field spraying, this is an immediate saving of 90 percent. The same savings are also achieved with subsequent treatments. The same robot only sprays above the beet, weeding is done in the row, and weeding between the rows.

The use of the robot on Pieter Risseeuw’s arable farm is actually a feasibility study into the practical maturity of the Farmdroid, which in this specific case is equipped with a spot spraying system. The Farmdroid field robot in itself is ready for practice, the question now is how the addition of spot spraying and camera technology will turn out. It is being investigated whether a combination of mechanical and chemical crop protection can be successfully applied to the cultivation of sugar beet. The chemical piece is new. A Farmdroid is running for the second year at an organic grower in the area for sowing and hoeing-weeding.

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Camera and extra nozzles

Later in the season, the plan is also to install cameras for plant recognition and extra nozzles, so that the machine can then be used to tackle potato seedlings in beets. ‘But we also want to look at how well the camera-equipped robot can select grass seed. In certain situations, the propagation of more difficult-to-grow, but better-paid varieties of grass is then within reach.’ For example, Torch grass can yield as much as € 6 per kilo. Smooth-leaved meadowsweed also yields well, but is difficult to get clean.

The feasibility study is being carried out as part of the ’Zeeland in Stroomversnelling’-project. The study is subsidized with an amount of € 45,000, the other half of the costs being collected by the partners in the project.

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Machine knows where the seeds are

After sowing, the Farmdroid stands in a warehouse of an agricultural mechanization company, where Risseeuw prepares it for weed control. He shows how a kind of batting knife swings up and down between the beet plants. “That is done entirely on the basis of the machine’s knowledge of where exactly it has deposited the seeds. You can adjust how close you want the weeding to be carried out along the plants.’

The seeds are placed to an accuracy of less than a centimetre, more precisely than a precision sowing machine with sowing disc and vacuum does. The Danish robot, says Risseeuw, works more accurately than a precision seeder. There is hardly any seed rolling away, because an electromagnetic valve releases each individual seed very close to the bottom of the sowing slot. “Less than two centimeters above. In addition, the robot drives very slowly and the seed barely has any speed.’

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Farmdroid versus contract work

Arable farmer Risseeuw calculates, in anticipation of the conclusions of the practical test at his current farm, that the Farmdroid sowing, hoeing/weeding and spot spraying robot comes a long way in terms of efficiency compared to the conventional approach. Apart from the environmental benefit. The basic machine for sowing and hoeing / weeding costs € 85,000, on top of that comes € 15,000 for the spot spray installation and € 18,000 for the camera for weed detection. Total € 118,000.

“If you then calculate with 20 hectares of beets per year and a depreciation period of 10 years, the machine costs for sowing and cleaning a hectare of beets come to € 590 per hectare. The sum of what you save with it – sowing and hoeing by the contract worker, plus a saving of 90 percent on weed killer – comes to € 460 if they calculate so quickly. Not an insurmountable difference in itself. Certainly not when you consider that on farms with chicory in the building plan, the machine can increasingly mean the difference between whether or not to grow. Chemical weed control has always been difficult in chicory and is only getting more difficult.’

Possible use of the field robot in the selection of grass seed as an alternative to walking with the back kettle could further support the yield. Until the beets have closed the field, the Farmdroid field robot is working to keep the crop clean. After that, an initial balance can be drawn up for the year on how this has been achieved and what role the machine can play in non-organic arable farming.