German organic grower develops laser weeding robot to cut €200,000 labour costs
Faced with soaring labour bills and limited weeding options, German vegetable grower Rainer Carstens developed his own autonomous laser weeding robot. Now tested in carrots, the system may soon become commercially available.
Weeding is one of the most time-consuming and costly tasks on vegetable farms — and increasingly difficult due to rising labour shortages. For organic producers like Westhof Bio Group, where chemical weed control is not an option, the pressure is even higher.
To address this, Rainer Carstens, owner and CEO of Westhof Bio Group in northern Germany, launched a laser weeding robot project in cooperation with the West Coast University of Applied Sciences. His goal: develop a precise, automated, chemical-free alternative that makes organic production more financially viable.
The results are now visible in the field.
€200,000 in annual weeding costs
Located in Dithmarschen, Schleswig-Holstein, Westhof Bio Group has grown from 60 hectares in the 1970s to one of Germany’s largest organic vegetable producers. Today the farm cultivates 1,200 hectares of vegetables and runs the country’s only organic vegetable freezing facility.
Annual production includes 30,000 tonnes of fresh vegetables and 10,000 tonnes of frozen produce. The company employs 150 full-time staff and 150 seasonal workers. According to Carstens, annual weeding costs had surpassed €200,000 — all done manually.
“Because we’re organic, we cannot use chemical herbicides. Manual labour was our only option, but it’s very expensive and increasingly difficult to find workers,” Carstens explains. “That’s why we wanted a sustainable, automated and affordable alternative.”
University collaboration
Development started in 2014, in partnership with the West Coast University of Applied Sciences. Engineering was led by university researcher Vitali Czymmek. In 2019, the project was spun off into a separate company, Naiture GmbH & Co. KG, which is now part of Westhof Bio Group and holds all patents.
The current version of the Naiture robot, completed in early 2025, is an autonomous trailed system pulled by a 120 hp John Deere tractor. It began field operations in April, primarily in carrot fields.
Laser weeding: how it works
The robot has 3 main components:
The cameras take continuous images of the crop rows. These are processed in real time by an energy-efficient onboard computer using a custom AI model. This model identifies individual weeds, pinpoints their location, and sends instructions to the laser.
The laser is guided by a mirror-based scanner system for millimetre precision. It targets the weed’s growth centre, destroying it in 40 to 150 milliseconds — without disturbing nearby crops or soil structure.
Carstens explains: “The robot is especially effective for intra-row weeding — targeting weeds between crop plants, which is usually the most difficult task. It navigates autonomously, distinguishes crops from weeds, and eliminates the weeds one by one with laser precision.”
Westhof cannot disclose development costs, as the project was supported by academic and research grants.
