Around Oregon, USA, 2011 AD, there were numerous fairly recent invasive plant species like Himalayan berries. some of these are basically impassable to humans or deer, while absorbing vast acreage. I think that a very gradually moving roomba like robot could see if people were around, absent people it could zap an ordinary industrial laser at the base of these brambles which would permit other native plants to recolonize the area.
supporting the immediate utility of this technology is the Gates foundation laser bug zapper that can tell the difference between things well enough to zap bugs with a laser around people. The roombalike bramble zapper could be even less risky, identifying a species specific plant stalk, then zapping it during wet weather. I suggest photovoltaic power.
This differs from the other laser lawnmowers slightly as it is automatic, with public or private spaces as the area of use. With the Roomba gestalt you just let it go, then a a few months later the job of removing acres of brambles is complete. At regular ntervals images could be uploaded to the cloud to figure out errors
hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of public west coast acres could benefit.-- beanangel, Jun 06 2012 the entire laser vegetation trimming category Laser_20Lawnmower [beanangel, Jun 06 2012] apart from the fact that they'd all end up in people's backyards and garages within a week that's cool.
Needed is an anti-purple laser for loosestrife.-- FlyingToaster, Jun 07 2012 What's to stop it from becoming entangled in the mass of dead brambles?
A more elegant solution would be giraffes, who dine on thorny plants. They might need to be fitted with weighted hats to persuade them to eat such low- lying plants.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 08 2012 well regarding photovoltaic power the idea is that it soaks up energy all day, moves three feet, then uses semiconductor lasers to zap say 10 or 20 brambles. after a year thats a huge area. if each mechanism is around $70 to $400 It is vastly cheaper than human labor.
The other system, which was lurking as it is not .5b permissable, is to genetically engineer a plant virus that makes brambles taste delicious to rodents, who would then gnaw away the bases very rapidly. The protein thaumatin or possibly Thiamin (rodents apparently really like thiamin) are two possibilities.-- beanangel, Jun 08 2012 Napalm. Lots and lots of Napalm.-- 8th of 7, Jun 08 2012 //Napalm// <sp.>. "Nae-bramble"-- AusCan531, Jun 08 2012 Better, just a conventional bush hog mower that demolishes the invasive bramble and sprays Roundup behind it, killing the roots. Then wait for the chemicals to break down and seed the area with indiginous wildflowers.
I kind of like the 'giant roomba' idea, but why incorporate expensive, complicated lasers? K.I.S.S.-- Alterother, Jun 09 2012 random, halfbakery