Ex-Tesla engineer builds Aigen robots to get weeds without pesticides

The Aigen Element looks like a drafting desk with tough tires. It drives continuously over fields at about two miles per hour, using an advanced computer vision system to identify crops and unwanted plant invaders.

With a two-axis robotic arm placed close to the ground, Element can bounce weeds away, allowing them to dry out before they can grow seeds and spread.

Designed for fleet sizes that meet specific growing business needs, these robots can operate continuously for 12 to 14 hours at a time without needing to be plugged in. They are equipped with lithium iron phosphate battery packs, and flexible solar panels that are lighter than those typically used on rooftops. They can even run for about four hours in the dark, or six hours in light to moderate rain — all without the emissions associated with diesel-powered farm equipment.

Aigen, the company behind the robots, was founded by former robotics engineer Rich Wurden.tesla In 2020, he worked as an engineer alongside Kenny Lee, former Proofpoint product lead.

According to the latest data U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, By 2012, the United States used more than 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides annually, with herbicides accounting for nearly 60 percent of that. Glyphosate was the most used active ingredient that year, with 270 million to 290 million pounds since 2001.

Reducing growers’ over-reliance on pesticides and the high use of chemicals in the global food supply is personally important to Wurden and Lee. Both founders and several employees on the 15-person team have overcome serious health issues related to pesticide exposure.

Wurden, Aigen’s chief technology officer, comes from a family of sugar beet farmers in Minnesota. He said his family’s farm now grows sorghum and soybeans.product

“When I was 15, my pancreas suddenly stopped producing insulin,” he says. He has long suspected that exposure to pesticides, which is linked to a higher risk of diabetes, was a factor.

As a type 1 diabetic, he has lived with his insulin pump and environmental health every day since his diagnosis.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Wurden worked at Tesla as a mechanical engineer and battery technician, helping create the battery packs used in the company’s best-selling Model 3 and Y vehicles, as well as the Model S flagship sedan. He later joined an electric boating startup called Pure Watercraft in Seattle, where he says he found some startup magic.

Lee, the CEO of Aigen who overcame non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at a young age, said he became interested in personal and planetary health after working in cybersecurity, where he focused more on making the internet a A safer place for all. (Lee was a co-founder of Weblife.io, which was acquired by Proofpoint in 2017 for about $60 million.)

Wurden and Lee met on a Slack channel called “Work on Climate,” where tech industry veterans discuss how to adjust or grow their careers while addressing the climate crisis.

For example, farmers want to be able to identify exactly when and where insects are present so they can eliminate those that pose a risk. They also need irrigation-related analytics, which will tell them whether their plants are getting enough water, and whether some parts of the field may need more water than others.

Typically, a fleet of Element robots will pass across the field in succession, collecting data each time. Currently, the system provides what farmers call a “plant count,” an analysis of how many healthy plants are in the field.

Eigen Elements runs on solar and wind power and is completely off the grid. It also runs its analytics and artificial intelligence machine learning software on-device rather than in the cloud. Because of this, Li said, the company has the potential to provide farmers with broader crop analysis.

“While we’re taking weeding action, we can do other things that other agricultural technologies can’t because we can move on the ground.”

The element could also help farmers address persistent labor shortages in agriculture and keep crops healthy even in extremely hot weather that discourages people from staying in the fields to weed.

Trent Eidem, who has contracted Aigen Element to work on sugar beet farms near Fargo, said the robots are also attractive because they can reduce the amount of money growers spend on expensive “inputs,” namely herbicides. . Adam says inputs and energy are his biggest budget items.

Next year, the company plans to build more robots and bring them to farmers, developing more capabilities for them.

Aigen has raised about $7 million in early funding and additional grants from the state of Idaho to develop their system.

Investors include seed and venture funds focused on tech and climate: NEA, Global Founders, Regen Ventures, Bessemer, Climate Tech VC, Cleveland Ave., and a climate fund founded by a former CEO.Yuan Executive Mike Schroepfer.