A thriving vegetable garden or crop farm is every farmer’s joy. But that’s until weeds begin to appear between your prized plants. Most weeding methods require time and some elbow grease, and sometimes, you may be unable to keep up.
But worry not, Spot, a new weed hero, is here.
Joe Johnson, a doctoral student at Texas A&M University, has unveiled a robot dog flamethrower that can burn weeds to a crisp within minutes. Joe took Spot, a robot originally built by Boston Dynamics, attached a propane torch to his arms, and taught him to identify and burn common sunflower weeds in a cotton field.
Spot is a quadrupedal robot that’s 19.7 inches wide and can move around crops planted in 20-inch row widths and above.
“It also has omnidirectional mobility, which means it can cross rows to the next weed,”
– Joe explained.
The robot dog flamethrower produces 2642°F flame that burns weeds in cotton and other speciality crop farms with a 97.3% precision.
At a maximum speed of more than 3.5 mph, Spot can cross a 20-acre farm diagonally from one corner to the other in about three minutes. However, the duration may vary depending on the crop row width and weed density.
It has shown its greatest efficiency in eliminating escape weeds in mid-to-late season, where herbicides and other mechanical methods may not work.
However, the robot dog does come with some limitations. For instance, it performs poorly in flooded fields and can get tangled when maneuvering around creeping weeds.
Joe elaborates, “The robot has an Ingress Protection (IP) rating of IP54. It’s not built to work in rainy conditions.”
Spot may not be in the market yet; however, a similar robot flamethrower, Thermonator, from Throwflame, an Ohio company, is available for purchase and is listed at $9,420.

Lead Editor for Insight Weeds.