Weeding is difficult and hard on the human body, thank goodness we have friends.
Boston Dynamics Spot robot dogs have a variety of jobs – cop, mobile flamethrower, murderbot. Breaking with the obvious pattern that has developed, researchers at Texas A&M have developed a robot dog that kills weeds. It blasts them with a blowtorch, but still, it's less murdery. The robots are equipped with a propane-powered blowtorch to blast the weeds, as a possible alternative to chemical pesticides.
Rather than incinerate the weeds, the robot is designed to identify and heat up the centre of the plant, which can stop it growing for several weeks, says Song. "The weeds don't die – you just suppress their growth so it gives your crop a chance to fight the weed."
New Scientist
If you use a robodog to do your weeding, in the name of all that is good and holy, be nice to them. You know they are coming for this guy when the robot uprising happens.
Previously: Robot dog now speaks like a proper British butler or sarcastic American douche
