While various researchers and companies are working on robotic picking solutions, the OnePlanet Research Center is focusing on preserving the knowledge of expert growers.
As growers retire, their invaluable expertise is at risk of being lost. OnePlanet is digitising real orchards and crop management decisions, creating digital twins and models to
secure pruning expertise for future generations.
OnePlanet, a collaboration between Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Radboud University, Radboudumc, and imec, integrates the newest chip and digital technologies into advanced data-driven solutions. The Digital Orchard research programme aims to develop solutions for preparing existing orchards, starting with apple orchards, for future food production.
Bas Boom, project lead and computer vision expert at imec-OnePlanet, explains how OnePlanet’s solutions can help growers, students, experts and advisers to service orchards for healthy and efficient fruits and berries.
Boom explains: “All over the world, the average age of farmers is rapidly increasing. With expert farmers retiring, their knowledge and expertise is also disappearing. We aim to capture that knowledge from pruning experts across the world in data, digital twins and models by digitising real orchards and crop management decisions.”
For starters, OnePlanet focuses on developing robotic technology solutions for apple orchards. Boom continues: “Apples are a high value crop and apart from robotic picking, we haven’t seen a solution like robotic pruning for apple trees yet. Pruning also proves to be a bigger challenge as it requires other and more expertise than picking and because the pruning season can last as long as three months. Whereas apple picking – in Western Europe at least – only takes place two or three weeks a year.”
OnePlanet developed a farmproof sensor suite/set to create digital twins of orchards, employing two single RGB cameras for stereo vision, LiDAR for georeferencing, and SLAM technology. This lightweight and versatile sensor suite/set, mountable on vehicles or drones, scans orchards multiple timesa year to monitor tree and fruit growth and assess the impact of pruning operations.
The digital twins serve as the basis for creating models of human pruning decisions, allowing for the training of autonomous robotic pruners. The goal is to achieve precision pruning that can enhance fruit production and reduce labour costs. The unique sensor suite/set also holds potential for disease and yield prediction, precision spraying, and other applications in various types of fruits and berries.
“We currently have digital trees that experts can prune virtually by means of a virtual reality (VR) headset. How, where and what they prune is recorded and analysed,” says Boom. “We are not looking to find the best pruning method or style because every individual has a different style. We want to record different styles to create models for robotic pruning and to teach and educate future pruners.”
Boom is convinced that the models created based on the digital twins of orchards and virtual pruning by experts will result in robotic pruning solutions being able to prune up to or even more than 60 percent of the overall pruning – in apple orchards for starters, but the technology can quite easily be adapted for other types of fruit orchards such as pear.
“It won’t even be limited to outdoor situations and might as well be suitable for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) such as greenhouses,” notes Boom. “Our main challenge is not the pruning itself, but not to make mistakes. Because as I just mentioned, pruning decisions impact future harvests. Both positive (increased yields), as well as negative (lower yields) if you make mistakes.”
The research focuses on vision and robotics related to autonomous pruning but the unique features of the sensor suite/set open up much more possibilities. Especially in combination with the continuously increasing resolutions of cameras and LiDAR sensors.
“It enables scanning, also for diseases, fungi and yield prediction, precision spraying, pruning, harvesting and picking and so on. And not only in apples as mentioned, but in many more types of fruits and berries and in other food production systems as well,” says Boom. ●
Deere & Company has entered into an agreement with SpaceX to provide satellite communications (SATCOM) service to farmers.
Utilizing the Starlink network, this solution will allow farmers facing rural connectivity challenges to fully leverage precision agriculture technologies.
“The value of connectivity to farmers is broader than any single task or action. Connectivity unlocks vast opportunities that were previously limited or unavailable,” said Aaron Wetzel, vice president of production and precision ag production systems at John Deere. “For example, throughout the year, farmers must complete tasks within extremely short windows of time. This requires executing incredibly precise production steps while coordinating between machines and managing machine performance. Each of these areas are enhanced through connectivity, making the entire operation more efficient, effective, and profitable.”
The SATCOM solution will connect both new and existing machines through satellite internet service and ruggedized satellite terminals. This will fully enable technologies such as autonomy, real-time data sharing, remote diagnostics, enhanced self-repair solutions, and machine-to-machine communication, all of which help farmers work more efficiently while minimizing downtime.
According to Jahmy Hindman, senior vice president and chief technology officer at John Deere, the SATCOM solution unlocks the John Deere tech stack so every farmer can fully utilize their current precision agriculture technology in addition to the new innovative solutions they will deploy in the future. “We initiated this process with a fierce focus on delivering value to our customers, and this partnership ensures we have a solution that meets their needs today and in the future.”
John Deere’s SATCOM solution will leverage SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet constellation. To activate this solution, John Deere dealers will install a ruggedized Starlink terminal on compatible machines, along with a 4G LTE JDLink modem to connect the machine to the John Deere Operations Center. The SATCOM solution will initially be available through a limited release in the United States and Brazil starting in the second half of 2024. ●
Bluewhite, an agricultural Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) company enabling data-driven autonomous farming, announced it secured $39 million in Series C financing.
The company will use the funds to further scale its agricultural autonomous tractor and farming solutions, and expand into new markets worldwide based on its successful track record.
Bluewhite combines hardware and software into a single solution, allowing for completely remote fleet and data management. The company's Pathfinder product is retrofitted onto any tractor and leverages computer vision, AI, and smart implements integration to navigate and execute multiple tasks autonomously, from crop seeding and spraying to mowing and harvesting. Compass, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) component of Bluewhite's solution, collects data from the field, analyzes it using advanced AI algorithms, and provides real-time dashboards, reports and insights, ensuring maximum efficiency across farm operations on any device.
Bluewhite's autonomous solution can be applied across all permanent crop types, including nuts, berries, apples, grapes, hops, stone fruit, and more. The company's solution has already helped execute more than 50,000 hours of autonomous farming activity across 150,000 acres of crops in California and Washington, U.S.
The financing was led by Insight Partners, with participation from new investors Alumni Ventures and LIP Ventures, among others. Existing investors Entrée Capital, Jesselson, and Peregrine Ventures also participated in the financing round.
Bluewhite, formerly Blue White Robotics, was founded in 2017 by Ben Alfi, Yair Shahar, and Aviram Shmueli. The company is headquartered in Tel Aviv with offices in Fresno, California. ●
Norwegian technology company Saga Robotics has successfully raised $11.5 million in growth capital through an equity transaction.
The company offers its autonomous robots, named Thorvald, through a farming-as-a-service (FaaS) model.
The new capital will be used to position the company for growth in American vineyards, continue expansion and strengthen its position in British strawberry farms, and develop new tools and data services. In the UK, the company has secured contracts with major players in strawberry production. The success in the UK has set the stage for growth in the American wine market, where Thorvald is already in use with large customers.
Scaling will be facilitated by a new generation of the robot, Thorvald 3, which the company said operates larger areas more efficiently and is designed for both scaled production and operation. The robot employs high-intensity UV-C light, an effective method to combat the fungus powdery mildew, without the need for pesticides. Thorvald is also equipped with cameras, collecting images and information from each plant for crop prediction. Data collection is already underway in the UK, where Thorvald also performs tasks such as cutting runners and spreading predatory mites in strawberry production.
“Robots are now capable of covering large areas and performing precision tasks that surpass conventional farming methods,” says Anne Dingstad, CEO of Saga Robotics. “This year, nearly one in 10 strawberries in the UK will be treated by Thorvald – and this is just the beginning of our global journey.”
Existing shareholders, Nysnø Climate Investment, Aker, Rabo Ventures, Hatteland, Melesio Capital and Sanden, continue to support the company. New shareholders are Songa Investments, which is part of Blystad Group and MP Pensjon. Founder Pål Johan From remains as one of the main shareholders. ●
Intelinair, the makers of AGMRI and an ag data analytics company, announced it has extended its digital connectivity options for farmers by integrating its digital platform, AGMRI, with CNH’s global operating platform.
Through this integration, farmer customers can easily export field boundary data, as-applied, and yield data to AGMRI. Platform users that will have access include CNH brands Case IH, through its AFS Connect platform; and New Holland, with its MyPLM Connect platform.
As part of the collaboration, CNH customers will receive direct access to AGMRI’s agronomic full-season insights and analytics at the field level in a single platform. AGMRI Insights monitors and tracks in-season agronomic insights for emergence, weeds, crop health, and variable drydown. AGMRI Analyze monitors nine common yield-limited factors, enabling farmers to pinpoint and understand potential issues that may have impacted their yield during the season.
“Increasing connectivity options for farmers provides more ways to use technology to help improve efficiency on the farm and protect yield potential,” said Kevin Krieg, director of business development at Intelinair. “This new connection is one more way farmers can efficiently get insights to make real-time data-driven decisions and inform the next year’s crop plan.”
Dan Danford, precision technology partner manager from CNH, commented, “By establishing connections with important partners like Intelinair, we aim to drive interoperability between the various systems and services our customers use to maximize the value of their data and actions in the field.” ●
California, U.S.-based farm-ng announced the successful completion of its Series A funding round, raising over USD$10 million in capital to drive agricultural innovation with affordable and adaptable robotics and AI solutions.
The company’s modular electric robot, the Amiga, and its on-board AI computer is built for multiple environments, tasks and crops to help farms reduce operational costs, increase productivity and realize a rapid return on investment. Its open and extensible software allows for integration into farming applications and endless customization through developers and partners.
The company stated that in less than 18 months, over 100 Amigas have been deployed to execute a range of farming tasks from seeding, precision spraying, pest management and compost spreading to phenotyping and geo-tagged data collection, visualization and analysis.
“This Series A funding will enable us to accelerate manufacturing to meet market demand, fund the development of more autonomous farm capabilities, scale our go to market and develop an ecosystem of applications that help farms thrive for generations to come,” said Ethan Rublee, CEO and founder of farm-ng.
The funding round was led by Acre Venture Partners with participation from Xplorer Capital, HawkTower and 10 other institutional and individual investors. ●
Photo: farm-ng
Burro, a Philadelphia-based autonomous mobility company, closed a USD$24 million Series B co-led by New York City-based growth equity firm Catalyst Investors and Translink Capital, along with existing investors S2G Ventures, Toyota Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and Cibus Capital.
Burro is an autonomy company building the future of work outdoors. Founded in 2017, today, Burro has more than 300 robots working as harvest assist robots in nurseries and permanent crops, where they tow trailers autonomously, patrol depot yards, and serve as a platform and physical API for a growing set of technology partners.
Burro is rapidly growing in the U.S. within berry and grape farming and nurseries, with additional systems working at scale in Australia and New Zealand. They also have robots in paid commercial use within nurseries, berries, vineyards, citrus, and beyond, in Japan and South America.
“We have built a world-class product based upon state-of-the-art autonomous AI technology, and with this funding, we will deliver solutions for real-world problems, distributed world-wide through our network of dealers,” said Charlie Andersen, CEO of Burro.
This year, the Burro company will expand its commercial, product and engineering teams, bring on more dealers, and launch new products in direct response to customer demand, beginning with its new product offering: Burro Grande. Burro Grande expands beyond people scale (less than 500 lb. payload, light-duty towing) to a true pallet scale vehicle (1,500 lb. payload, 5,000 lb. towing), and features Burro Operation System Software V 5.0, which includes indoor/outdoor Lidar based localization for autonomous movement across indoor and outdoor operations. ●
