I love gardening, but when the heat index hits triple digits and the mosquitoes are out in full force, weeding my multiple garden beds is not a pleasant job. We have robots that vacuum, robots that mop, and robots that clean pools and windows, so it may come as no surprise that we now have a robot that will weed the garden. The Tertill garden-weeding robot looks like a small, green Roomba. Topped with a solar panel, it has relatively large tires for navigating cultivated dirt, and it communicates with a smartphone via Bluetooth. On the underneath of the chassis is a tiny weed-whacker.

Some 15 million of them are cleaning floors all over the planet, and they're doing so reliably and affordably and autonomously enough that people keep on buying them, which is something no other consumer robot has ever been able to replicate. Providing the vision for the small team that designed the Roomba was Joe Jones. What started out as his personal side project at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1988 became a commercial product at iRobot in 2002, and while iRobot is still doing its best to make the Roomba better than ever, Jones left to found his own agricultural robotics company, Harvest Automation, in 2006. Now Jones has started his second robotics company, Franklin Robotics, which is funding its latest project through Kickstarter: Tertill is a solar-powered, weed-destroying, fully autonomous and completely self-contained robot designed for your garden. Put it out there, forget about it (mostly), and it will brutally exterminate any weeds that it can find, as long as they're short. The genius thing about Tertill is that it's self-sufficient. It has one button, you push that button, and then forget about the robot while it weeds your garden every day, forever.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox. From wacky talking Einsteins to clumsy security'bots, from speedy drones to the underwater operations at Fukushima, it's been another busy month. So let's kick off our July review with a look at robots in action! You'd be forgiven for missing this first one.

How many computers do you own? If you picked a number close to three (say, laptop, tablet, and smartphone) you're way off. The answer is probably dozens. There are computers in your car, in your appliances, in your thermostat, and maybe even in your light bulbs. Every year the number goes up.

Some 15 million of them are cleaning floors all over the planet, and they're doing so reliably and affordably and autonomously enough that people keep on buying them, which is something no other consumer robot has ever been able to replicate. Leading the small team that designed the Roomba was Joe Jones. What started out as his personal side project at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1988 became a commercial product at iRobot in 2002, and while iRobot is still doing its best to make the Roomba better than ever, Jones left to found his own agricultural robotics company, Harvest Automation, in 2006. Now Jones has started his second robotics company, Franklin Robotics, which is funding its latest project through Kickstarter: Tertill is a solar-powered, weed-destroying, fully autonomous and completely self-contained robot designed for your garden. Put it out there, forget about it (mostly), and it will brutally exterminate any weeds that it can find, as long as they're short. The genius thing about Tertill is that it's self-sufficient. It has one button, you push that button, and then forget about the robot while it weeds your garden every day, forever.

Franklin Robotics has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Tertill, their solar-powered, garden-weeding robot. Tertill lives in your garden, collecting sunlight to power its weed patrol, and cutting down short plants with a string trimmer/weed whacker with almost no intervention required. Available for about $300USD, the fully autonomous Tertill is the first weeding robot available to home gardeners. Tertill is round, short, has four wheel drive and extreme camber wheels. It uses proprietary algorithms to ensure that it finds as many weeds as it can, using its sensors to distinguish between weeds and crops based on height.

For those tired of the never-ending task of weeding, one set of engineers has the answer: a robot that autonomously clears up your lawn. The machine roams the garden and uses sensors to detect weeds sprouting from the soil, which it then cuts down using a small string trimmer. The robot, called Tertill, is solar powered and water-proof so can be left outside in the rain and does not need to be plugged in to charge. Experts have developed a machine that automatically roams the garden and uses sensors to detect weeds sprouting from the soil, which it then cuts down. As well as the ability to pair with smartphones through Bluetooth, the Tertill also has a USB port for charging during cloudy weeks.

Let's be honest: while planting your garden can be fun, weeding it usually isn't. Not unless you enjoy crouching down for long stretches, anyway. You might not have to endure the drudgery for too much longer, though. Roomba co-creator Joe Jones and Franklin Robotics are launching Tertill, a robot that weeds your garden all by itself. The machine automatically roams the soil, using sensors to identify small plants (you use collars to protect young crops) and chop them down.

What do vacuuming, mopping, and weeding have in common? They're all repetitive household chores that must be done frequently. Jones invents practical, mobile robots, among them the vacuum-cleaning Roomba and floor-washing Scooba, which he developed at his former employer iRobot. At his new startup, Franklin Robotics, he's continuing to alleviate housework drudgery by making a waterproof robot that weeds flower and vegetable gardens. The Tertill, which has been prototyped and is scheduled to launch in summer 2017 for $250, operates autonomously by using solar power, sensors to identify obstacles, and a string trimmer to cut weeds. Jones hopes later versions of it will appeal to organic farmers who want to weed their crops without using herbicide.

I love my garden at home, but the one thing I can't stand: weeds. No matter what I do, the little buggers pop up between all of our plants and vegetables. If I take off for just one weekend, the garden is packed with them. Well, a new startup may just have the answer in the form of a tiny, adorable robot. It's called the Tertill, and its premise is amazingly simple: it's a small, waterproof, solar-powered robot that hangs out in your garden and trims any weeds that it finds as soon as they pop up.