A Low-Cost Edge-Based Robotic Platform for Real-Time Site-Specific Weed Spraying in Row Crops

Global demand for food continues to increase as population growth intensifies and pressure on agricultural production builds up to provide and effectively manage weeds. Weeds naturally compete with crops for resources and can significantly reduce yields if not maintained efficiently. Advances in precision agriculture have introduced successful vision-based target spraying technologies, demonstrating a significant impact in herbicide use reduction. But many existing solutions are costly for farmers, computationally intensive, high energy driven and optimized for large-scale spraying operations, which limit the technological advancement adoption to small and medium-size farms. Therefore, this study presents a real-time edge-based robotic platform for site-specific target spraying, developed entirely from the ground up at a cost of $6,000 USD. The platform integrates an energy efficient edge device and a custom designed control circuit making an energy efficient system without relying on cloud computation. Field experiments conducted in corn and soybean fields near Casselton, North Dakota, USA, during the 2025 growing season achieved an F1-score of 93.9%, with an analytically estimated herbicide reduction of 82.9% under the tested operating conditions. These findings highlight the potential of low-cost, edge-based platforms to deliver effective, scalable, sustainable, and affordable precision weed management solutions, contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, by promoting equitable access to agricultural technology, strengthening farming communities, and supporting socially responsible and environmentally conscious food production systems.