Leya Invents Next Generation Agricultural Blue Laser Weeding Technology

Laudado&Associates LLC (L&A), an agricultural technology development company headquartered in California, announced the Autonomous Agricultural Solutions Conference held at FIRA Robotics&last week in Salinas, California.

This patent pending technology is a completely new design, designed by L&A, aimed at maximizing the commercial feasibility of laser weeding and thinning. It utilizes a unique combination of blue laser diodes, proprietary hardware, and embedded software, including L&A's AgCeption ™  Perception technology. Together, they are integrated into a robust and scalable module with flexible design that can meet the needs of global agriculture.

Chris Laudado, President of L&A, said, "Everyone in this field is talking about eliminating genetically modified seeds and herbicides, but we are talking about solving the problems that humans have had for 6000 years. Known as L&Aser ™， The most advanced laser technology was unveiled at the Global Emerging Agricultural Technology Exhibition held on the Aoya Autonomous All Aluminum Light Robot Platform on September 19, 2023.

After rain, the pressure on weeds is strongest, unlike heavy automatic weeding tools that cannot enter water saturated fields, light L&Aser ™  Robots can be deployed early, frequently, and on a large scale, thanks to the order of magnitude increase in commercial feasibility and the technological progress and creativity of the L&A engineering team.

The existing laser weed control technology uses thermal energy as its main mode of action, while L&Aser ™  Utilizing multiple modes of action to increase the target organic absorption of laser energy by 10-100 times, especially under humid conditions, due to the impact of water on L&Aser ™  It's transparent, "said Dr. Nicholas Charipar, Chief Technology Officer of L&A and the first inventor of this breakthrough technology. Improved efficacy by 1-2 multiples, enabling L&Aser ™  Able to utilize its state-of-the-art tracking system to track target plants at speeds of up to 2.5 miles per hour.

Laudado continued, "Every L&Aser ™  It can easily achieve 1 acre per hour, but the throughput ultimately depends on the unique environment around each photon weeding treatment. The pressure, size, type, crop, market conditions, and so on of weeds all drive the "ideal" treatment. This may mean achieving maximum throughput with a dwell time of 50 milliseconds at 2 miles per hour under certain conditions, but in other cases, maintaining a dwell time of 125 milliseconds at a speed of 1.5 miles per hour may be the best choice.

L&Aser ™  The technical demonstration can be immediately provided to selected growers at the L&A R&D base and headquarters in Chico, California. The company announced that they will begin testing commercial services in Yuma, Arizona in the fourth quarter of 2023, and then deploy 3-5 L&Asers in Salinas Valley starting from the end of the second quarter of 2024 ™  A fleet of robots, equipped with 80 inch beds.

Source: Laser Network