Key Technologies and Prospects of Laser Weeding Robots

[Significance] Grass damage in farmland seriously restricts the quality and yield of crop planting and production, and promotes the occurrence of pests and diseases. Weed control is a necessary measure for high yield and high quality of crops. Currently, there are five main weed control methods: Manual, biological, thermal, mechanical, and chemical weed control. Traditional chemical weed control methods are gradually limited due to soil pollution and ecological balance disruption. Intelligent laser weeding technology, with the characteristics of environmental protection, high efficiency, flexibility, and automation, as an emerging and promising ecological and environmental protection new object control method for field weeds, has become the core direction to replace chemical weeding in recent years. The laser weeding robot is the carrier of laser weeding technology, an important manifestation of the development of modern agriculture towards intelligence and precision, and has great application and promotion value. [Progress] Laser weeding is currently a research hotspot to develop and study key technologies and equipment for smart agriculture, and has achieved a series of significant results, greatly promoting the promotion and application of intelligent laser weeding robots in the field. Laser weed control technology achieves precise weed control through thermal, photochemical, and photodynamic effects. In this article, the research background of laser weeding was introduced, its key technologies, operation system and equipment were discussed in details, covering aspects such as operating principles, system architecture, seedling, weed recognition and localization, robot navigation and path planning, as well as actuator control technologies. Then, based on the current research status of laser weeding robots, the existing problems and development trends of intelligent laser weeding robots were prospected. [Conclusion and Prospect] Based on the different field grass conditions in different regions, a large number of indoor and outdoor experiments on laser weed control should be carried out in the future to further verify the technical effectiveness and feasibility of laser field weed control, providing support for the research and application of laser weed control equipment technology. Despite facing challenges such as high costs and poor environmental adaptability, with the integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, as well as policy support, laser weeding is expected to become an important support for sustainable agricultural development.