Robot dog can stifle weeds by blasting them with a flamethrower

A robot dog equipped with a flamethrower could be used to stop weeds growing on farms, potentially offering a replacement for harmful herbicides. Even highly targeted herbicides can cause environmental problems, affecting local wildlife, and "superweeds" are quickly evolving resistance to the most common weed-killers like glyphosate. In search of an alternative solution, Dezhen Song at Texas A&M University and his colleagues have developed a weed control system that uses a brief burst of heat from a propane-powered flamethrower controlled by a robotic arm, attached to a Spot robot manufactured by Boston Dynamics. Rather than incinerate the weeds, the robot is designed to identify and heat up the centre of the plant, which can stop it growing for several weeks, says Song. "The weeds don't die – you just suppress their growth so it gives your crop a chance to fight the weed." Song and his team first tested the flame nozzle to make sure they could accurately target the weeds' centre.