TYM launches 'Aigamo Robo' weed-suppression robot for rice paddies

Agricultural machinery maker TYM has launched in South Korea an autonomous robot that replicates the traditional "duck farming" method of weed control — replacing live ducks with a self-driving machine. The company announced Friday the domestic release of the Aigamo Robo, a robot that muddies paddy water to block sunlight and suppress weed germination.

Rather than pulling up weeds that have already grown, the Aigamo Robo works by stirring up the soil on the paddy floor to create conditions hostile to weed growth. As the robot moves through the field, an underside mechanism churns the mud, raising water turbidity and cutting off sunlight. Settled mud particles then cover weed seeds and seedlings, further inhibiting their development.

The robot's effectiveness was first validated overseas. A two-year trial conducted by Japan's National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and Iseki Agricultural Machinery across 36 organic rice farms found that using the robot reduced the average number of mechanical weeding sessions by 58 percent. Yields rose an average of 10 percent compared with conventional organic farming methods.

Oh Ju-seok, a professor in the Department of Convergence Biosystems and Machinery Engineering at Chonnam National University, said the weed suppression rate recorded in a local demonstration "jumped sharply from 47.39 percent in the second week to 74.91 percent in the third week." He added that the result "means the turbidity generated by the robot, combined with a light-blocking rate of about 96 percent, accumulated to very effectively prevent early weed growth — and in the zones where the robot actually operated during testing, not a single weed was collected."

The Aigamo Robo weighs 6 kilograms. Once switched on, it navigates autonomously by detecting paddy ridges and adjusting direction accordingly. A companion GPS-linked app lets farmers track the robot's route in real time, call it back, configure work settings, and activate an anti-theft function.

The robot runs primarily on solar power and can operate for up to 10 hours a day, covering up to 15,000 square meters. The recommended period of use is the three-to-five weeks following transplanting, while the rice plants are taking root — a stretch that overlaps with the peak labor season for transplanting and weed management, and one the robot is designed to ease.

The Aigamo Robo was developed and tested in Japan by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, NEWGREEN, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and Iseki Agricultural Machinery. It won the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award at Japan's 11th Robot Awards in 2024.

A TYM official said the Aigamo Robo is "a suitable solution for farms seeking to produce high-quality organic rice by reducing the use of pesticides and herbicides," adding that the company would "continue to address the rural labor shortage through AI and autonomous driving technology and expand the rollout of smart agricultural machinery."