--- title: "This Robotic Centipede Crawls Farms to Kill Weeds — and Might Join the Military" description: "Startup Ground Control Robotics has created a bio-inspired centipede that uses sensors and motor-actuated limbs to control weeds." date: "2025-05-16" modified: "2025-05-16" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/robotic-centipedes-weeding" categories: - "Military" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "Farming" - "farming robot" - "robots" - "the digest" --- # This Robotic Centipede Crawls Farms to Kill Weeds — and Might Join the Military ![Startup Ground Control Robotics has created a bio-inspired centipede that uses sensors and motor-actuated limbs to control weeds.]() *\Image: Ground Control Robotics\* ## Creepy Robo Crawlers Engineers have developed a giant robotic centipede that can scuttle across farmland to root out weeds. As [*IEEE Spectrum* reports](), Georgia Tech spinoff Ground Control Robotics has created a bio-inspired centipede that uses sensors and plenty of motor-actuated limbs to control weeds. "Centipede robots, like snake robots, are basically swimmers," founder Dan Goldman told *IEEE Spectrum*. "We created a new kind of mechanism to take actuation away from the centerline of the robot to the sides, using cables back and forth," he added. "When you tune things properly, the robot goes from being stiff to unidirectionally compliant. And if you do that, what you find is almost like magic — this thing swims through arbitrarily complex environments with no brain power." https://youtu.be/Kvm4AK_z_0c ## Never Too Many Legs The unnerving contraption was designed for fields with difficult terrain, where large-scale automation can't operate, such as extremely steep and rocky wine grape hills. Ground Control Robotics is hoping to take the weight off human farmers, who often have to spend long hours checking plants' health and pulling weeds. It's especially relevant on farms that don't use pesticides to keep pests and weeds at bay. The idea is to eventually have a whole host of these robotic centipedes swarming around fields around the clock. For now, the company is working with a Georgia-based blueberry farmer and vineyard owner on pilot projects, according to IEEE Spectrum. Eventually, if its creepy crawling robots turn out to be a success, Goldman is hoping to deploy them for disaster relief and even the military. For one, their appearance could certainly make the enemy's skin crawl on the battlefield. **More on robotic farmers:** *[Google's Parent Company Is Building a Farming Robot]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()