E-Mail IMAGE: Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed small-scale robots that can fertilize, weed and cull single plants in a field. This photo shows testing in an Iowa State... view more Credit: Photo by Ashlyn Rairdin and courtesy of Soumik Sarkar/Iowa State University AMES, Iowa - A gardener hoping for a crop of the juiciest summer tomatoes might tend to each and every plant in a plot. But a farmer working to feed the world? Researchers believe it's possible. They're applying and integrating layers of technologies - including sensors, machine learning, artificial intelligence, high-throughput phenotyping platforms such as drones and small-scale rolling robots that can also fertilize, weed and cull single plants in a field - with the ultimate goal of replacing farmers' reliance on heavy machinery and broadcast spraying in operations of all sizes.