The use of herbicides and other pesticides can contaminate soil, water, turf, and other vegetation. In addition to killing insects and weeds, pesticides can be toxic to a host of other organisms, including birds, fish, and non-targeted plants.
Solinftec, a company that specializes in agricultural digitalization, is expanding its Solix Ag Robotics offerings. It has now unveiled its Solix Sprayer robot designed to detect and spray weeds in farmer’s fields. The robot was developed in partnership with the Indiana-based research and development company McKinney Corporation, which will produce and manufacture the Solix spray robot.
The new cutting-edge technology is slated to become commercially available in 2023 to the entire agriculture market, including farmers, cooperatives, and agretailers.
The new Solix Sprayer robot will help producers reduce their chemical inputs and deliver a lower carbon footprint and environmental impact. It will provide autonomous and sustainable spot-spray applications on growers’ fields. The spray robot is powered by four onboard solar panels that control the drive system and the spray system.
The robot uses a suite of integrated sensors to perform a root-to-leaf scan of each plant that it passes over. If Solinftec’s innovative ALICE AI platform determines the plant is a weed, the device selectively applies herbicide to it. The Sprayer provides reports on crop populations, weed identification and densities, disease identification and thresholds, insect identification and thresholds, nutrient deficiency identification and densities, NDVI, among other layers of maps for data analysis, and much more useful data to the grower.
Utilizing a lighting system and battery powered by solar panels on top, the sprayer can operate virtually 24 hours a day. In addition, the robot will provide weed spot-spray maps with analysis of inputs saved and can service up to 100 acres per day depending on the field shape and terrain.
Solinftec is revolutionizing how farmers run their businesses with end-to-end mission-critical solutions, generating up to 95% efficiency improvements by turning data into action.
“Solinftec focuses on really solving structural problems in agricultural management and offers solutions that truly promote low-impact agriculture and not only measure or certify the footprint but offers a real solution to reduce your impact,” shared Leonardo Carvalho, Solinftec’s director of operations. “Weed detection is a leading issue in fields across North America, and the Solix Sprayer is designed to not only monitor and scan fields like the original scouting version but detect and manage weeds with technology that allows the device to spot-spray into the plant instead of from above, eliminating drift and soil compaction caused by larger machines and help lower environmental impact.”
