The robot, dubbed Tom, will autonomously cover 20 hectares per day and can distinguish plant details at sub-millimetre resolution, with less than one millimetre per pixel resolution on the ground.

It is fitted with two downward-facing cameras to monitor what is in the field, with sensors to detect obstacles as it trundles around. Tom transmits the data which is then stitched together into a map by software.

Developed by British agritech start-up Small Robot Company (SRC), it uses an AI programme called Wilma to identify the weeds separately from plants that are supposed to be there.

Wilma can already differentiate broadleaved weeds and emerging wheat and work is underway to identify grass-type weeds, such as blackgrass, brome and ryegrass.

It should allow farmers to apply herbicides more precisely to areas where there are weeds, rather than having to blanket-spray large areas.

Callum Weir, farm manager at the National Trust’s 600-hectare Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire, said Tom the weed-mapping robot helps improve efficiency and benefit the environment.

“The beauty of the robot [Tom] is that it gives me absolute precision,” he said. “If I were to go and walk a field, I would walk a ‘W’ shape in a field and be able to see two metres in front of me.

“This robot can map every centimetre of the field and give me recommendations for different parts of the field. Instead of me looking at applications from a field scale, I will go to a metre-squared scale.

“That means I can be much more precise in the applications that I apply, the operations that I do, saving fuel, saving fertiliser and increasing biodiversity.”

SRC have two further robots are in development, one to zap weeds with an electrical charge and the other for precision planting.

“We are really keen at this quite important time of biodiversity decline, climate change mitigation and political uncertainty around farming that we support our tenants to make sure they have sustainable livelihoods,” Weir said.

Sam Watson-Jones, co-founder of SRC said: “Farmers are the same as any other people in that you have a group of early adopters.”

He said the idea for the technology came in 2016 and had developed to its current stage with the help of crowdfunding and government grants.

Rob Macklin, the National Trust’s head of farming and soils, said: “Technology needs to play a big part in solving many of the issues we currently face in farming, particularly improving soil health and carbon sequestration, reducing our reliance on fossil fuel power and fertilisers and avoiding the adverse impacts of synthetic chemicals on the environment.

“We want to encourage nature-friendly farming practices and we have to lead by example and embrace innovations.”

Last month, the National Trust installed a ‘pico’ hydroelectric generator in order to protect the first Welsh-language bible.

The robot, dubbed Tom, will autonomously cover 20 hectares per day and can distinguish plant details at sub-millimetre resolution, with less than one millimetre per pixel resolution on the ground.

It is fitted with two downward-facing cameras to monitor what is in the field, with sensors to detect obstacles as it trundles around. Tom transmits the data which is then stitched together into a map by software.

Developed by British agritech start-up Small Robot Company (SRC), it uses an AI programme called Wilma to identify the weeds separately from plants that are supposed to be there.

Wilma can already differentiate broadleaved weeds and emerging wheat and work is underway to identify grass-type weeds, such as blackgrass, brome and ryegrass.

It should allow farmers to apply herbicides more precisely to areas where there are weeds, rather than having to blanket-spray large areas.

Callum Weir, farm manager at the National Trust’s 600-hectare Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire, said Tom the weed-mapping robot helps improve efficiency and benefit the environment.

“The beauty of the robot [Tom] is that it gives me absolute precision,” he said. “If I were to go and walk a field, I would walk a ‘W’ shape in a field and be able to see two metres in front of me.

“This robot can map every centimetre of the field and give me recommendations for different parts of the field. Instead of me looking at applications from a field scale, I will go to a metre-squared scale.

“That means I can be much more precise in the applications that I apply, the operations that I do, saving fuel, saving fertiliser and increasing biodiversity.”

SRC have two further robots are in development, one to zap weeds with an electrical charge and the other for precision planting.

“We are really keen at this quite important time of biodiversity decline, climate change mitigation and political uncertainty around farming that we support our tenants to make sure they have sustainable livelihoods,” Weir said.

Sam Watson-Jones, co-founder of SRC said: “Farmers are the same as any other people in that you have a group of early adopters.”

He said the idea for the technology came in 2016 and had developed to its current stage with the help of crowdfunding and government grants.

Rob Macklin, the National Trust’s head of farming and soils, said: “Technology needs to play a big part in solving many of the issues we currently face in farming, particularly improving soil health and carbon sequestration, reducing our reliance on fossil fuel power and fertilisers and avoiding the adverse impacts of synthetic chemicals on the environment.

“We want to encourage nature-friendly farming practices and we have to lead by example and embrace innovations.”

Last month, the National Trust installed a ‘pico’ hydroelectric generator in order to protect the first Welsh-language bible.