The idea of artificial intelligence (AI) is extremely polarizing – for some, the possibilities of AI are exciting and endless; others worry about the profound effects AI could have on society, the economy and, well, humanity. Paul Mikesell, Founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics, best known for the LaserWeeder, says his company exemplifies how AI can be harnessed to make a positive impact.

“We’re in one of the areas in AI where it’s completely non-controversial,” he said. “We’re not influencing people, and we’re not generating, you know, deepfake videos. We’re just finding weeds and killing them.”

Carbon Robotics’ intentions and groundbreaking achievements haven’t gone unnoticed. In May the Seattle-based company secured an investment from NVentures, the venture capital arm of NVIDIA—a world leader in accelerated computing and AI. Mikesell said the two companies came together at FIRA USA in Salinas, Calif. last year, where the NVentures team met with Carbon Robotics’ grower clients and observed robots in the field.

“The NVIDIA name is exciting. The fact that the heads of the NVentures group were willing to take a whole day, get actively engaged and come visit robots with us impressed me,” Mikesell said.

Carbon Robotics launched its Autonomous LaserWeeder in the spring of 2021, which combines computer vision, AI deep learning technology, robotics and lasers to identify and eliminate weeds. The LaserWeeder uses 24 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) to process 4.7 million high-resolution images per hour, offering rapid plant detection and identification. The lasers can target and destroy up to 5,000 weeds per minute, according to the company.

“In the last few years, AI has exploded, and NVIDIA GPUs are essential for building AI models,” said Mikesell. “Our robots are full of AI systems, and we use a lot of NVIDIA GPUs. NVentures is always looking for areas in which their GPUs can be put to good use.”

The investment money will help Carbon Robotics in a number of ways, one of which will go toward continued geographic expansion of the LaserWeeder product. A number of Western Growers members are already using the LaserWeeder, including Sábor Farms, Taylor Farms, Braga Fresh, Grimmway Farms, D’Arrigo Bros. of California and JV Smith Companies. Additionally, Mikesell said the company has plans to launch several products—completely independent from the LaserWeeder—later this year.

As a Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology (CIT) resident, Mikesell was interviewed by Western Growers at the end of 2022. And much like the evolution of technology, since then it has been full steam ahead for Carbon Robotics. The company has spent the last year continuing to build out its LaserWeeder units, even expanding internationally. “We have machines going to Europe now and Australia, and we’re already shipping across the United States,” Mikesell said.

While Carbon Robotics doesn’t disclose the number of units it sells, Mikesell shared that at the time of this interview, the company had exceeded the milestone of 10 billion weeds eliminated by the LaserWeeder. To put that achievement in perspective, that number was at 100 million in November 2022.

“Growers are continuing to see a huge amount of benefit from our LaserWeeder,” he said. “We were originally selling on a value proposition of just straight money saving dollars per acre, but we’ve now discovered a huge amount of yield improvement as well because the LaserWeeder doesn’t touch soil or the crops.”

The CIT released its first of an ongoing series of case studies on the financial impact of agtech earlier this year. In the case study, the CIT collaborated with two grower operations to share quantifiable data of the financial value of Carbon Robotics’ LaserWeeder after one year.

The case study found that in a span of eight months, growers not only reduced weeding expenses with the LaserWeeder, but also improved yield. One grower’s yields with several crops were improved by an estimated 10 to 15 percent – and up to 50 percent, in some cases. The increased yield came in the form of recoverable product and less crop damage from hand-weeding.

The study also found that the LaserWeeder can reduce weed seedbank. “It was important for us to not only weed at a relatively low cost, but that we would improve our weed-to-plant ratio over time by reducing the weed seed count in the soil,” said Josh Roberts, former President of Triangle Farms, who participated in the case study.

Carbon Robotics’ customers range from farms as small as 300 acres to farms that are hundreds of thousands of acres. Mikesell said his goal is to have a product for growers that will pay for itself in less than three years.

“We’ve saved farmers a lot of money. Most of our farmers are seeing that payback period between one to three years…sure, there are growers who are more conservative in nature and are conscientious of how they spend their money, but we have enough machines out there in the field now that most people know somebody, or are two or three steps removed from somebody, who has a LaserWeeder and can get some questions answered firsthand,” Mikesell said.

And while the LaserWeeder is getting a lot of attention by word of mouth, Mikesell said another big reason for his company’s success is that his team makes a concerted effort to get to know farmers and uses their feedback to optimize his products.

“We have our laser weeders, and through a collaboration with our managers and Carbon Robotics, we have them weeding and thinning at the same time,” said Kristen Smith Eshaya, President of JV Smith Companies, to Western Growers last summer.

“In the early days, we had engineers basically living out of trailers in the middle of these farm fields because we were actively developing and changing and editing things,” he said. “Our earliest growers and customers were in Salinas and are all part of Western Growers, and we’re very happy to continue to participate.”

Mikesell said he makes it a point to visit with his customers as often as possible, stating that the growers are the ones who really hold all the knowledge. “The only way you can make a good product for growers is by building that relationship and having conversations,” he said. “A lot of tech companies have made the mistake of feeling like they’re experts in one field and thinking they’re just going to show up and give farmers a piece of equipment to solve all of their problems. It doesn’t work like that.”

Mikesell’s familiarity and experience in the tech startup space has served him well. For more than 20 years, he’s contributed largely to robotics and advanced techniques for AI-driven computer vision systems for notable companies in Silicon Valley, including Uber—and he has no plans for Carbon Robotics to slow down any time soon.

“I have a long background of making venture capitalists a ton of money through my inventions, and I hope to continue doing that with Carbon Robotics,” he said. “I’m very proud to have NVIDIA invested in us, and if you think that’s exciting, just wait until you see what we do next.”

The third annual FIRA USA event is set to take place Oct. 22-24, 2024 in Woodland, Calif., and will showcase more than 35 robots demonstrating advancements in agricultural automation solutions in several demonstration zones. The exhibition hall will include more than 70 indoor booths. This year, for the first time, growers will be able to attend the three-day event for free.