Aigen's agricultural robots aim to make farming carbon-negative
Although the only thing a robot can currently do is destroy weeds, Aigen insists that it is not just building a robot that gets rid of pests. The company says its mission is to terraform the land, and that it has a path to making agriculture carbon-negative.
The company must have made a convincing argument, as it recently announced $4 million in funding from investors including NEA with participation from AgFunder, Global Founders Capital and ReGen Ventures.
The company builds autonomous, solar-powered robots that can move across fields, using computer vision to tell a "friend from foe" and a plant from a weed. In its first iteration, the robot simply moves slowly, treating up to three acres of farmland per day.
“My relatives are farmers in Minnesota, and I have been talking with them for quite a while. They are really struggling with traditional approaches to farming. Even hardened people who love chemicals, who love tilling the land and other methods that have released carbon into the atmosphere for thousands of years, are starting to understand that maybe we need to be open to other ways of doing this. Agriculture currently accounts for about 16% of carbon emissions. In the future, it could become negative by reducing diesel engine emissions, soil compaction, chemical use and tillage”
The core premise the startup works from is that photosynthesis is, overall, carbon-negative: plants take CO2 from the air and turn it into sugars, more precisely carbohydrates. In essence, plants pull carbon out of the air and return it to the ground.
Aigen argues that by changing technology and farming methods, carbon neutrality or even negativity can be achieved. The weeding robot is just the first step in the company's effort to build something with real value now, to expand the platform and do more and more for its mission in the future.
“We collect data with images. The robot has several cameras, and we use built-in AI pre-trained to recognize plants and various objects. Once we know what we are looking at, we either remove or protect the plants using two manipulators under the robot. Heavy machinery compacts the soil, which means roots grow sideways rather than down. This is a problem, because you cannot place the carbon that plants capture deep into the ground. By using fewer tractors and large commercial machines, you can change how agriculture works”
"Aigen's technology uses best-in-class artificial intelligence and robotics to deliver an elegant solution to some of humanity's biggest problems," said Andrew Shoen, partner at NEA.
"More than 50% of our soils have degraded due to chemicals and soil management practices that undermine their carbon-capture potential. At Aigen, we are restoring the health of our planet through the land and our soils with an affordable and precise robotic platform. It is an affordable and easy-to-use service for the people who feed the planet. Our robotic platform runs directly on the sun. Just like a plant! We strive for affordability and scale, while others chase high profits. We start with the farmer and build our platform from there," the company said.
The company's small robots use a combination of sensors, cameras and software to monitor and manage plants in the field, and help farmers make decisions on tasks such as weeding and propagation. Precise monitoring of each individual plant also means farmers do not need to blindly spray the entire field with pesticides to protect growth. A weed, for example, can simply be identified by one of Aigen's robots and removed.
“When we talk with farmers about how we can help improve soil health, one of the most common answers is: "Help us with the weed problem." So that will be one of the first problems we help solve”
At the same time, Aigen is focused on helping farmers improve soil health. Some studies, including the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Land, estimate that between 60% and 75% of soil carbon has been lost due to the use of agricultural land.
Aigen argues that its system can help counter such losses by automating on-farm processes that do not require consumables such as fuel, and by effectively replacing the use of chemicals that degrade soil and its ability to capture carbon.
“Richard and Kenny offer a unique combination of hardware, software and agricultural expertise. In a very short period of time, they developed a new solution that is easy to deploy, convenient to manage and, above all, useful for farmers”
Wurden and Lee expect the product to reach customers by the end of 2022, with a broader launch likely in 2023. Most of the initial capital will go toward hiring staff, and next month the company will open the doors of its new headquarters in Kirkland, Washington.
