Development of an Autonomous Weeding Robot for Roadside Weeds*

Manual roadside weeding poses significant safety risks. Deploying a robot for this task can mitigate these risks while reducing labor costs. While most previous research on weeding robots has focused on agriculture and gardening, little attention has been given to roadside weeding. In this study, we developed an autonomous weeding robot that navigates along the shoulder of paved roads and removes detected weeds. The robot utilizes an RGB camera to recognize road boundaries and follows the road edge autonomously. Additionally, an RGBD camera is used to measure weed positions and facilitate precise cutting.