Hamish Penny started the electric weeding company Weda Tech in 2019. He has a passion for solving problems with technology.

Hamish was introduced to agritech in his final year engineering project which focused building an electric weeding device.

Since then, Hamish has completed a Master’s in Engineering and worked on several projects including Weda Tech, which aims to commercialise the unique equipment he has developed to provide weed control options for farmers.

Electric weeding is the destruction of weeds with high-voltage electricity. Differentiating it from other non-chemical weed control techniques, electricity allows a systemic kill of a whole plant, low energy usage, minimal soil disturbance, operation in wet soil conditions, and can control weeds in close proximity to crops – even when touching.

Weda Tech was founded to harness the inherent benefits of electrical weed control and use a precision approach to develop novel equipment that can control the widest variety of weeds in the widest range of environmental conditions. The focus has been to build highly flexible pulse generation equipment and powerful measurement techniques to allow understanding of the way weeds respond to specific treatments.

There are some obvious synergies between electric weeding and image-based weed recognition and robotics, that could be combined to maximise the capabilities of electrical weed management.

There are a few start-up companies around the world developing and commercialising electric weeding equipment, including Rootwave (who have recently been collaborating with the Small Robot Company), Crop.Zone and others. Weda Tech is focused on thinking about the problem differently and through an understanding of the optimal dosage for a specific weed in specific conditions, is creating solutions that solve the most significant problems faced by farmers.

A strip weeding device is currently under development, with a 10-20cm wide electrode that could control a strip next to a crop or, be combined in parallel to control any width of paddock.

The current research device will also be developed into a site-specific weeder that can control low weed densities, with a robotic or human arm guiding to the target weed.

Plans for future development remain open and feedback is welcome.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:

Thanks to our Conference Sponsors