TLDR
Key Points:
- NVIDIA’s venture arm, NVentures, invests in US-based Carbon Robotics, known for its autonomous laser-weeding platform.
- Carbon Robotics will use the investment from NVIDIA to accelerate product development and expand internationally.
NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, NVentures, has invested in US-based Carbon Robotics, a company known for its autonomous laser-weeding platform for specialty crops. While the specific dollar amount of the investment was not disclosed, Carbon Robotics stated that this investment was part of its Series C funding. The company plans to utilize this investment to expedite product development and expand internationally.
Carbon Robotics’ vehicles, powered by 24 NVIDIA GPUs, utilize deep-learning-based computer vision models to autonomously identify and eliminate weeds using CO2 lasers. The LaserWeeder, as the product is called, processes 4.7 million high-resolution images per hour and is capable of zapping 5,000 weeds per minute. The company’s dataset includes 25 million labeled plants and more than 30,000 crop and weed models.
Furthermore, Carbon Robotics currently provides its machines to prominent growers in the US, including Taylor Farms, Cal-Organic, and Braga Fresh. The company’s collaboration with NVIDIA’s NVenture team began when Carbon Robotics integrated NVIDIA GPUs into LaserWeeder to demonstrate a novel precision weeding approach.
Weeding automation has become a crucial task in agriculture, particularly for specialty crop growers facing labor shortages. Carbon Robotics is one of several startups addressing these challenges, alongside companies like Stout, Verdant Robotics, and FarmWise. The NVentures investment will enable Carbon Robotics to enhance product development and introduce advanced features to improve efficiency and sustainability in farming.
