A Swiss weedkiller robot could curb our dependence on herbicides

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a Roomba-like robot that can tend to crops autonomously. At Carnegie Mellon, they're building a suite of A.I. and drones to take on some of agriculture's most demanding tasks. And just last year, a team of automated machines farmed an acre and a half of barley, from planting to harvesting, without a single human setting foot on the field. A Swiss company called ecoRobotix recently unveiled its contribution to automated agriculture -- a robotic weed-killing machine. The four-wheeled robot doesn't look like much more than a mobile table top, but Reuters reports that the unassuming machine may reshape the way we approach agriculture.