This LaserWeeder is only the second unit of its brand working in Australia. Images: Prime Creative Media
Family-owned Tripod Farmers has recently integrated an AI-powered and camera-based weed killer from Carbon Robotics – only the second unit of its kind in Australia
Located in Bacchus Marsh, north west of Melbourne, Tripod Farmers is a family-owned and run salad vegetable growing business – supplying to major supermarkets and fresh markets across Australia.
The business farms across 1,000 acres (405 hectares) currently, but that wasn’t always the case, with its story dating back to 1989 – on a 15-acre farm.
Working across such a large area requires efficiency, and Tripod’s new Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered weed-killing technology has become a key staple of its operation.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is increasingly becoming familiar in our lives and for Tripod Farmers, it’s an everyday essential.
For the last few months, the company has been running its Carbon Robotics LaserWeeder for almost 12 hours, every day.
Imported from the United States, this machine uses AI and a camera-based system to identify weeds from crops and kill the weeds with high-powered lasers.
Seeing the machine up close and personal, one could smell the weeds burning and see the smoke coming off them.
Having only owned the machine for a few months, fourth-generation farmer and Tripod farm production manager Frankie Ruffo says the machine has substantially reduced manual labour costs in the 800 hours of work it has completed.
“Before acquiring this machine, we’d usually have 20 people manually weeding our lettuces, but the LaserWeeder has reduced that down to 10,” he says.
Using 30 carbon dioxide lasers, each 150W, to kill weeds, Tripod has managed to reduce its herbicide use – further reducing input costs.
“Herbicides can be quite expensive and can damage the soil’s health, so reducing this has been a serious benefit for us,” Ruffo says.
Unlike tillage equipment, the LaserWeeder leaves soil undisturbed, which the farm production manager says can lead to healthier crops and higher yields.
Attached to the back of a tractor, Ruffo says the LaserWeeder has also increased efficiency in the business, as only one person is needed to drive a tractor around while the machine does what it does best – zapping weeds.
Up to 300,000 weeds can be eliminated per hour with precise accuracy, Ruffo says, covering 2 acres per hour at 1km/h.
Whether it’s day or night, rain or shine, the LaserWeeder can work through all conditions ensuring Tripod’s crops are always in tip-top condition.
Instead of getting its staff to manually count how many lettuces are growing, Tripod uses the AI-powered machine to do this as it moves around the farm.
Initial approach
Only a couple of months ago, 20 Tripod Farmers employees would manually weed its crops with herbicides, but for the management team today, that seems an eternity ago.
“We were incurring huge expenses of hand weeding, so we decided to research some potential solutions,” Ruffo says.
“When we came across the LaserWeeder, we realised it could combat our weed issue and reduce costs at the same time.”
As a US-based company, Carbon Robotics’ LaserWeeder is still very new to the Australian market, with Ruffo saying Tripod’s unit was only the second to be working Down Under.
With over 100 units sold worldwide, farmers are increasingly showing interest in the machines – thanks to the numerous benefits it provides.
Despite coming with a significant initial outlay, Ruffo says the investment was well worth it for Tripod.
Supplying vegetables both pre-packaged and as bulk-produce, Ruffo says Tripod uses the machine on nearly all its crops including lettuce, wild rocket and spinach – to name a few.
Using AI-based deep-learning models, Tripod has trained the LaserWeeder to learn from the images it captures.
“When the machine takes high resolution photos of crops and weeds, we can program it to identify a weed from a crop,” Ruffo says.
“It can then learn off this information, so it knows what to zap and what to leave for us.”
Admiring the LaserWeeder’s work, the farm production manager says sometimes he takes for granted how useful it has been for Tripod and how far technology has come.
“I wouldn’t have imagined we would have this type of technology two years ago, I can’t wait to see what else will be available in the coming years.”
Farms & Farm Machinery visited Tripod Farmers in an on-farm tour that formed part of this year’s Hort Connections exhibition in Melbourne in June.
