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Autonomous weeders for Christmas tree plantations - a feasibility study PrefaceAgriculture, horticulture and forestry have in the past benefited from a succession of technological developments that have brought greater productivity and economic efficiency. Historically, the emphasis of these developments has been on the mechanisation to increase work rates through use of larger and more powerful machines. The newer information based technologies have already been used for some time to improve functions and controls of machinery, especially for spatial graduation of treatments. These technologies have now reached a stage which seems to make autonomous field machinery and individual treatment of plants realistic. Mechanical weeding in Christmas tree plantations is a well suited area to begin development of such equipment because of the relatively large size of the plants, the difficulties of using standard agricultural machinery and present extensive use of herbicides. This report presents results from a study on the feasibility of developing an autonomous Christmas tree weeder, including the technical, economic and environmental aspects, as well as the possibilities of using it for automatic data collection for management decisions. The study was carried out in a collaborative project between The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Section for AgroTechnology and The Research Centre of Forestry and Landscape, Department of Forest Management. The study has been financially financed by the Ministry of Energy and Environment. I acknowledge with thanks the valuable assistance we have received from: Tomas Nordfjell, The Research Centre of Forestry and Landscape, Dvoralai Wulfsohn has checked the language. Henrik Have
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