Scientists use AI-guided beams to automate cotton topping

In a test field on the campus of Xinjiang University, a white scanner-like machine slowly moves along the cotton ridges. From the upper frame, blue laser beams flash intermittently, striking the cotton seedlings below and releasing faint curls of smoke. This futuristic-looking device — resembling a massive security gate mounted on caterpillar tracks — is the third-generation laser cotton topping robot developed by a team led by Zhou Jianping, principal of the Xinjiang Institute of Engineering and a professor at Xinjiang University. The innovation, Zhou told the Global Times, represents a crucial step toward achieving full-process mechanization, automation and sustainable production in China's cotton-growing sector. Topping, or the removal of the cotton plant's growth tip, is a vital step in cultivation. Cotton plants tend to grow indefinitely both vertically and horizontally under favorable conditions, prolonging the growth period and reducing yield. Therefore, farmers pinch off the top buds to suppress apical dominance and encourage bountiful boll formation. Northwest China's XinjiWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times