Weeding Efficacy of an Automatic Weeding Robot Modified from a Mini Robotic Cleaning Ball in a Mesocosm Study

抄録

  In recent years, an increasing emphasis on conserving biodiversity in cultivated land has led to a need for environmentally friendly and sustainable agriculture that does not depend on the excessive use of agrochemicals. However, it can be difficult to generate high crop yields without using herbicides because alternative methods of restricting weed growth are often costly and labor-intensive. Here, we designed a mesocosm to examine the weeding efficacy of a cheap, commercially available, automatic robot ball, which was originally designed for house cleaning. The weeding robot performed very well, particularly for sprouts of Monochoria vaginalis var. plantaginea, a major paddy weed found in central Japan.