FarmWise's robotic weeder, Titan, gathers details about particular person crops to raised establish and decide weeds. FarmWise Labs, an organization making a robotic weeder named Titan powered by synthetic intelligence, introduced that it introduced in $45 million in Collection B funding. Fall Line Capital and Middleland Capital, two enterprise corporations that concentrate on investing in know-how for agriculture, led the funding spherical. Clay Mitchell, the co-founder and managing director of Fall Line Capital, is becoming a member of the FarmWise board of administrators with the funding spherical. GV, the enterprise capital arm of Google's dad or mum firm Alphabet, and Taylor Farms, a grower and processor of leafy greens and greens, additionally participated.

In the corner of an Ohio field, a laser-armed robot inches through a sea of onions, zapping weeds as it goes. This field doesn't belong to a dystopian future but to Shay Myers, a third-generation farmer whose TikTok posts about farming life often go viral. He began using two robots last year to weed his 12-hectare (30-acre) crop. The robots – which are nearly three metres long, weigh 4,300kg (9,500lb), and resemble a small car – clamber slowly across a field, scanning beneath them for weeds which they then target with laser bursts. "For microseconds you watch these reddish color bursts. You see the weed, it lights up as the laser hits, and it's just gone," said Myers.

A behemoth of a worker, recently recognized by a national publication, that can meticulously and precisely remove weeds growing between sprouting crops is being employed on farms in California and Arizona. Time magazine recently placed the FarmWise Titan FT-35 on its list of Best Inventions of 2020. It is an automated mechanical weeder that can help substitute the pass of a hand-weeding crew, which usually has 10 to 15 people. FarmWise has its operations headquarters, or home base for its team and machines, in Salinas and an office in San Francisco that houses most of its engineers. The company works with farming operations in the Salinas Valley such as Dole and Braga Fresh, plus dozens of other customers.

Editor's Note: Robotics Business Review's coverage emphasizes innovation, including start-up companies (or'young' companies). RBR "Start-Up Profiles" highlight individual start-up companies using a consistent, templated format that makes for quick, yet informed reading, that also simplifies comparative analysis. Funding Status – $20.2 million raised so far (Series A) FarmWise builds innovative systems and processes to streamline farm operations and increase food production efficiency. Technology / Product / Service(s) – For vegetable growers who face increased growing costs and new regulatory pressures, FarmWise builds innovative systems and processes to streamline farm operations and increase food production efficiency. FarmWise's first product, an automated mechanical weeder powered by AI and robotics has captured more than 100 million crop images. Today, it is offered as a service to vegetable growers in California and Arizona.

In a world of rapid change, artificial intelligence (AI) currently fuels most of this growth so it is no surprise that the next wave of great startups is based in AI solutions. With events like Covid-19, there is increased focus on solutions that tap into the extraordinary capabilities from AI. Something else unique is also happening. Generation Z (Gen Z) and the young millennial entrepreneurs are leading the way. Where are these innovators starting? One area where they are tapping into is a field everyone has had high hopes over the past few decades: robotics.

Agriculture company Wilbur Ellis, Xplorer Capital, and Alumni Ventures Group also joined the round. This round of funding will be used to grow the company's robotic engineering and operation teams as well as boost R&D efforts on plant-level detection and actuation capabilities. "Each day, one FarmWise robot can weed crops to feed a medium-sized city of approximately 400,000 inhabitants. We are now enhancing the scale and depth of our proprietary plant-detection technology to help growers with more of their processes and on more of their crops. Looking ahead, our robots will increasingly act as specialized doctors for crops, monitoring individual health and adjusting targeted interventions according to a crop's individual needs," said FarmWise co-founder and CEO Sébastien Boyer.

What a month it was for robotics. Whether it was Boston Dynamics launching its Spot quadruped robot, Shopify acquiring 6 River Systems or Universal Robots launching its strongest cobot ever, the robotics stories didn't disappoint in September 2019. Here are the Top 10 most popular robotics stories on The Robot Report for September 2019. Subscribe to The Robot Report's free weekly newsletter to stay updated on the latest analysis and news from the robotics industry. Since being acquired by SoftBank, Boston Dynamics promised to bring its robots to market.

Automating agriculture is a complex proposition given the number and variety of tasks involved, but a number of robotics and autonomy companies are giving it their best shot. FarmWise seems to have impressed someone -- it just raised $14.5 million to continue development of its autonomous weeding vehicle. Currently in the prototype stage, these vehicles look like giant lumbering personnel carriers or the like, but are in fact precision instruments which scan the ground for invasive weeds among the crop and carefully pluck them out. "Each day, one FarmWise robot can weed crops to feed a medium-sized city of approximately 400,000 inhabitants," said FarmWise CEO Sebastien Boyer in a press release announcing the latest funding round. "We are now enhancing the scale and depth of our proprietary plant-detection technology to help growers with more of their processes and on more of their crops."