MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Odd.Bot Weed Whacker robot help

One-line solution summary:

Helping conventional farmers to convert to more sustainable growing methods

Pitch your solution.

Current methods in arable farming are far from sustainable: the scale increase and mono-crops threaten the bio-diversity, the big diesel powered machines emit CO2, heavily compress the soil and a lot of chemicals are being used for our food production, all degrading the soil.

The alternative is already out there and getting more traction: organic farming. The downside is that organic farming requires a lot of manual hand weeding work, especially in the row in-between the plants.

The small solar powered weeding robot from Odd.Bot can detect both the crops and weeds and remove the weed mechanically in the row.

It can save organic farming up to 50% of their current costs for manual weeding and help conventional farmers to convert. Odd.Bot will save 170k litres of chemicals within 4 yrs.

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

We focus first on assisting organic farmers first who now have to revert to mechanical weeding which they do with hoeing machines and manual weeding to remove the weeds in the rows in-between the plants. Labour is hard to come by and expensive and currently one of the main reason for farmers to stick to conventional farming and full field chemical spraying. 100 hrs of handweeding per hectare are

Seasonal workers are hard to come by, need to be transported and housing need to be arranged.

What is your solution?

We offer a lightweight solar-powered robot as a service that can detect and distinguish weeds from crops on outdoor grown seeding cultivations and remove the weeds mechanically. On the robot

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Chemicals like herbicides account for 29% of all agri chemicals sold in Europe. Globally the market for chemical herbicides is 26 billion dollar market annually.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Scale practices and incentives for larger farmers and ranchers to decrease carbon emissions, land-use change, nutrient runoff, or water pollution

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

The Hague, Nederland

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model

Who is the primary delegate for your solution?

CEO: Martijn Lukaart