Ruud took centre stage on Biovak, the fair for organic farming, recntly held in Zwolle. Ruud is a robot. Send him out into the field and he weeds bitter dock. Fully automatic and on his own. A godsend for organic farmers.
He can certainly do it, states researcher Dr. Frits van Evert of Plant Research International of Wageningen UR. This has been shown in experiments. Ruud navigates with gps and recognises bitter dock with a camera and image analysis techniques. And he then destroys the plant with a razor-sharp cutter.
Wageningen scientists have for a number of years been working on the development of Ruud. The name Ruud is playing on the scientific name of bitter dock: Rumex obtusifolius L. ‘Bitter dock is a weed that can show rampant growth’, explains Van Evert. ‘It has a deep tap root and is very difficult to eradicate. As such it is not bad; cows do eat it. But no grass grows where bitter dock grows. This decreases the total production of a pasture.’
Bitter dock is a particular problem for organic farmers. They do not want chemical control and manual control takes a lot of time. Four years ago organic farmer Joost Samsom suggested to build a robot for bitter dock weeding. The prototype – Ruud – is now available.
Ruud can on the basis of gps signals manoeuvre with an accuracy of 1.5 cm. With a camera on a long arm the robot searches the field for bitter dock. According to Van Evert Ruud recognises the plant on the basis of its structure. On the other hand, Ruud is not very particular; in passing he also deals with dandelions. Control, and very thorough indeed, follows after detection. A movable cutter chops the soil – with the plant - down to a depth of fifteen cm. According to Van Evert experiments show that the plant does in most cases not return after that.
Ruud still looks a bit clumsy. Its design can be improved. It can be made bigger, or smaller, depending the farmer’s wish. Use in practice will show what is best. These field tests will be carried out this spring. But the robot is not only useful against bitter dock. The technique can be used against other plants as well. One of the weeds mentioned by Van Evert is the notorious ragwort.
The robot will after the fair return to the farm of Samsom in Wilnis. But this summer he can be admired in Wageningen during the international Field Robot Event, part of the Joint International Agricultural Conference. Ruud may then show his tricks amidst his colleague robots. / Roelof Kleis
Photograph: Robot Ruud has a movable cutter which he uses to chop the soil – with the plant – down to depth of 15 cm. / Photograph Robert-Jan Samsom
The article above has been produced by the editors of Resource, the weekly of Wageningen University and Research Centre. More information from Press and Science Communication of Wageningen UR, e-mail: pers.communicatie@wur or the editors of Resource, e-mail: resource@wur.nl. See archive on http://www.resource-online.nl.