A smart farm in Waigang, a town in Shanghai, has introduced a new robot that weeds rice fields. With a black, box-shaped design resembling a robotic vacuum cleaner, the machine uses rotating brushes installed underneath to attack newly sprouted weeds with shallow roots.

The robot has a navigation system and agricultural machinery operators can set weeding areas and travel routes for it to move through the fields with greater precision and efficiency.

Traditional weed-control methods have long faced a dilemma: Manual weeding is labor-intensive and costly, while chemical herbicides affect the soil and water. When they are used long-term, the weeds become herbicide-resistant.

The rice-field "robot vacuum cleaner" offers a greener alternative. Its brushes churn the water and mud, blocking sunlight and suppressing photosynthesis. This prevents the weeds from taking root. The machine controls weeds physically, leaving no chemical residues.

As rice plants enter the critical tillering stage, the machine, originally designed as a spring rice transplanter, has been transformed into a "weeding expert" for the new growth phase.

"The tillering stage is the process when rice plants produce new shoots and branches. The quantity and quality of tillers directly determine the final rice yield," said Sun Jiayun, head of the Shanghai Waigang Agricultural Machinery Service Cooperative.

To address the challenge of severe weed outbreaks during the mid-to-late tillering stage of rice, the cooperative introduced this multifunctional rice transplanting and weeding equipment. By simply replacing components on the original transplanter and adding a physical weeding device, it can be transformed into an efficient physical weeder for field operations, Sun pointed out.