FarmDroid FD20: Weed busters

It’s an early summer’s day in north-east Germany. Steadily, steadily, an odd little machine clacks its way down sugar beet rows, extending hoe blades into the gaps between young beet plants to chop out weeds. It’s toiling for organic farmer Matthias Saudhof, an organic farmer who normally relies mainly on a hoeing gang for weed control; these days that’s hard labour, expensive at up to 100 manhours/ha. Reason enough, then, for him to try a Danish made FarmDroid FD20 robot.

This three-wheel, solar-powered and largely autonomous unit can drill and hoe sugar beet and various veg crops under RTK guidance. Humans move it between fields, programme and set it to work, then must be on call in case of trouble and when drilling,