Robotic Weeding

Dear Colleagues,

Robotic weeding is a new approach of site-specific weed management. It is mostly targeted at single weeds instead of larger patches of weeds. Similar to site-specific weed control, it uses modern sensor and information technologies to assess and classify crops and weed species in agricultural fields. Those sensors can be cameras, spectrometers, very precise positioning systems, and other innovative tools to determine the position of weeds. Robotic weeding includes offline and online applications for weed control. Data processing is often performed using Artificial Intelligence. Mostly physical and chemical control methods of weed control are applied with robotic weeding. Robots usually have a higher degree of automation than previous applications of site-specific weed control. However, robots do not only imply completely autonomous systems. They can also be implemented on vehicles that are driven by humans.

We invite authors to submit manuscripts on the technical development and practical performance (weed control, selectivity, etc.) of robotic weeding. However, manuscripts on the environmental and socioeconomic impact of robotic weeding systems on farming will also be appreciated. If results of greenhouse and field studies are presented in the manuscript, we expect that those experiments are repeated over time and/or in different locations. Since a lot of progress has been made in robotic weeding over the last five years and several commercial systems of robotic weeding have been introduced, reviews summarizing the progress and comparing the benefits and limitations of those systems are also welcome in the Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Roland Gerhards
Guest Editor

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