In the collaboration, which also involves Swedish research institute and agritech specialists RISE, and video company Axis Communications, a pilot was run on a farm outside the city of Västerås in Sweden to connect, monitor and remote control the robot via Telia’s 5G network.
The autonomous electric robot uses advanced camera sensors and AI to help it identify and remove weeds, allowing farmers to automate costly manual work and cut their dependence on chemical herbicides that may damage the environment. The robot will also allow farmers to process data it collects via sensors and soil probes to aid precision agriculture, with analysis aided by the use of cloud services.
“For several years now, we have explored how 5G can be deployed in a range of industries, from manufacturing to healthcare,” said Magnus Leonhardt, head of innovation at Telia Sweden.
“This partnership gives us valuable insights into the exciting world of farming, where technology plays a critical role for sustainable development. We believe the combination of 5G and automation in precision farming has a lot of potential.”
