Green-Thumb Robots
The end of gardening as we know it? Possibly. A team of Danish agricultural engineers have developed a robot that specializes in weed removal. The three-foot-by-three-foot droid, dubbed Hortibot, has a built-in Global Positioning System that helps it identify and locate 25 different types of weeds. The robot can then spray the weeds or zap them using a laser or flames. One of the inventors, Claus Soerensen, told the Ludington (Mich.) Daily News that his robot can work around the clock—a potential boon to landscapers and facilities managers. Farmer Jim Schwass told the paper, "The labor problem will bring this in, when the government gets done with their immigration laws." Hortibot is still in the protoype phase, but is expected to cost approximately $71,000. Some commercial sprayers can cost up to twice as much, the paper reports.

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