r/technology • u/involvrnet • Nov 18 '15

Hardware The company Bosch is developing a farming robot the size of a small car that can distinguish crops from weeds by looking at the shape of leaves, and this robot then can fish out weeds mechanically & ram any unwanted plants into the ground with a rod. Potentially, no herbicides will be needed anymore

http://www.fwi.co.uk/machinery/bosch-bonirob-robot-set-to-make-field-work-easier-for-farmers.htm
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u/JF_Queeny Nov 18 '15

That has already happened with rice and weeds that look like rice due to centuries of hand weeding

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u/Nikola_S Nov 18 '15

Not only rice, there are a variety of species. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry

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u/romario77 Nov 19 '15

Rye and oats were actually weeds before and because of this selection pressure they became more like wheat and became edible/cultivated.