Objectives

SO1 – To develop an innovative tailor-made, movable, high-power, thulium-doped fibre laser for weeding.

SO2 – To develop an advanced artificial-intelligence (AI) detection system (image acquisition and AI-data processing) to provide the positions of the weed meristems (the plants’ sensitive growth centres).

SO3 – To build a tool (scanner) to direct the laser source onto the weed meristems in real scenarios.

SO4 – To develop a safe autonomous vehicle, based on a proven, innovative and eco-friendly agricultural mobile platform, to carry the weeding system accurately throughout the working field.

SO5 – To achieve a minimum impact of WeLASER precision weeding equipment on crops, environment and health.

SO6 – To develop a smart central controller to coordinate all the systems involved in the precision weeding equipment allowing the farmers to define, execute and supervise their tasks in a reliable, robust and user-friendly way.

SO7 – To ensure the commercial viability and exploitation of the proposed WeLASER system through the implementation of a Multi-Actor Approach.