EARTHROVER

Earthrover is a precision-agriculture company on a mission to make fresh, chemical-free produce available to and affordable for all – using advanced robotics and light weeding technologies. 

1. What does Earthover do? 

Earthrover helps farmers sell more and waste less of what they grow, while removing or reducing the reliance on weed control – helping the industry transition to a herbicide and pesticide free tomorrow. Its autonomous ‘CLAWS’ rover kills weeds using innovative light weeding technology while collecting decision-support crop data from a unique vantage point.

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2. How does Earthrover use robotics to solve problems? 

Weeds significantly decrease crop yields, yet current non-chemical solutions such as hand, mechanical, and laser weeding can be expensive,  unscalable, and present user safety and commercialisation challenges. CLAWS kills weeds by focusing beams of light directly onto the growing point – it’s effective, eye-safe and low-cost to maintain. The rover can be used in any and all conditions without human labour, and the crop data it collects supports management decisions such as harvest predictions. CLAWS was built by the robotics team behind the ExoMars rover (now known as Rosalind Franklin).  

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3.How did Earthrover come up with the idea?

Earthrover’s technical team saw many useful ‘down to earth’ applications of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover, which moves across Mars’ surface to analyse soil composition and quality and take samples and photos. Their expertise was combined with farmer-led insight and support from Pollybell Farms’ CEO James Brown, an agricultural innovator deeply committed to the idea of a chemical-free future.

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