Revolutionizing Field Mapping with ATV-based Imaging
Updated: Jan 22, 2021
According to a 2019 California Farm Bureau survey of 1,071 farmers from the country's leading agriculture state, 70 percent indicated they had struggled to find enough workers in previous years. According to the same survey, 56 percent have decided to implement or increase mechanization due to these labor shortages, while others have decided to raise wages (not feasible for all growers) or completely change cultivation practices. With this in mind, orchard and vineyard owners throughout the US are constantly faced with dilemmas pertaining to the lifecycle of each and every fruit, how much fruit is growing on each tree, the overall performance of specific blocks, how much water the crop needs, and even where pests are affecting crops. Each of these factors greatly influences the amount of money and effort growers spend on labor. Whether it be pruning, harvesting, water management, or pest management, being able to identify these crucial factors in real time could save growers a tremendous amount of time and money.
innov8.ag is partnering with FarmCloud & GreenAtlas, bringing together our data analytics alongside cutting-edge imaging & LiDAR mapping technology provided by GreenAtlas, resulting in a capability that enables growers to address each and every one of the above challenges. innov8.ag's focus is to bring complete freedom and access to data that takes into account water usage, chemical usage, weather, and labor alongside GreenAtlas' imaging sensors allows the grower to identify & alleviate countless problems.
Join innov8.ag, GreenAtlas, & FarmCloud Thursday, January 21st @ 4pm PST:
Join us for this exciting webinar revolved around a newly formed relationship between innov8.ag and GreenAtlas where we discuss state of the arch imagery analysis that can help inform growers about growth stages, pests, irrigation, and crop yields for apples, nuts, and grapes.
See how three Ph.d's collaborated to create a futuristic image processing system that can tell you exactly how big your canopy is, identify where pests are affecting your crop, identify water deficiencies, all while traveling at 25+mph. Click on the image below to sign up and continue reading to learn more about our guest speakers Dr. Steve Scheding, Adam Zediker, and Dennis Healy.
Watch this Webinar on Demand!
Hear from GreenAtlas Co-Founder:
Dr. Steve Scheding- PhD in Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering
Dr. Steven Scheding is an internationally recognized robotics and automation professional with a reputation for leading the development of novel technology that solves difficult business needs in challenging environments. Steve has almost two decades of experience leading multidisciplinary teams and multi-institutional partnerships in domains that demand novel, robust and cost-effective solutions, including 5 years as the director of the Rio Tinto Centre for Mining Automation. In his current role, Dr Scheding co-founded Green Atlas to automate the care of every fruit on every tree on the planet, through AI and robotics.
Hear from a 3rd Generation Growers Perspective:
Adam Zediker– Zediker Orchards, Horticulturist, 3rd Generation Grower
Adam was born and raised in the Yakima Valley. Adam’s family has been involved in agriculture for 3 generations in the PNW. Adam attended WSU for a B.S. in Agriculture Technology and Management . His pre and post college careers have been involved with Pome and Stone fruit of the Pacific Northwest. While pursuing horticulture excellence he has still found time to be with his family of 3 children and loving wife. Skiing as a family and doing other family events fills out the rest of his day.
“As a young horticulturist I came to value adjusting crop loads and generating balance within an orchard/ tree. As I have grown; generating, and understanding information to maximize profitable outputs has been the focus of my efforts. The type of technology that is being discussed today could help generate more profitable decisions moving forward. Models and data have helped speed up the trends in horticulture and agronomy.”
GreenAtlas Cartographer:
The Green Atlas Cartographer is an innovative combination of hardware and software that allows flower and fruit counts to be quickly and accurately mapped over entire orchards. With high resolution AI assisted mapping, our customers know every block and every tree, to help manage the life cycle from flower to fruit.
Orchard View:
Know the relative performance of different blocks, comparing overall yield and the evenness of the distribution. Know how well your thinning program worked and adapt for next year.
Block View:
Know the variability within each block. Determine management zones to address variability and achieve consistency every year.
Canopy View:
Go beyond 2D and know the performance of the lower and upper canopy. The trees on the right are one year older and bear more fruit up top, while the lower canopy has been managed evenly. Predict the increased harvest labour with more fruit in the upper canopy. During flowering, manage the different timing of lower and upper canopy bloom.
Tree View:
Zoom in and know exactly what’s going on like Google Street View™ for the orchard. Visually inspect high resolution color images anywhere.
Geometry View:
Cartographer uses LiDAR to measure tree canopy geometry throughout the orchard. This includes tree height, canopy area/volume and canopy density. Define treatment zones or make informed spray and pruning decisions throughout the season! Top right: apple tree volume; Bottom right: wine grape vine volume.
Multiple Crops:
The Cartographer has been busy working across multiple crop types including Apples, Almonds, Cherries, Kiwifruit and Wine Grapes across the spectrum of fruit lifecycle, from flowering to mature fruit, and in the case of almonds, post-harvest to map ‘mummified’ nuts left on the trees.
More than 66,000 ctares of tree-crops have been scanned to-date!
Green Atlas is expanding to pears and stone fruit in this coming season. Watch this space as Green Atlas expands its services even further in 2021!
About innov8.ag:
innov8.ag is partnered with Microsoft to enable growers to make informed on and off-farm management decisions based on machine learning and AI-based insights. Our solutions leverage the agronomist expertise of PhD researchers from land-grant universities and ag-centric colleges; pairing mutual data sources, big data capabilities and machine learning tools with grower expertise and experience.
Our current focus is permanent crops, as labor availability & efficiency is a significant industry challenge, often representing 60% of growers' costs. We're currently piloting a Smart Orchard project with the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission & Washington State University, where we're applying our data aggregation & data science capabilities to provide growers with insights focused on the bottom line. We’re already starting to see opportunities for cost savings and environmental conservation that can benefit growers everywhere.
As an Ag-centric data analytics company, our team is constantly looking for new and improved implications of technology helping growers to save time, labor, and money. One of our most useful and fascinating tools to use is LiDAR 3D mapping. LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing tool that uses light in the form of pulsed lasers to the Earth. The LiDAR instrument/satellite measures distances between objects by illuminating them with light and measuring the reflection with a sensor. LiDAR can be utilized through satellites, land bound instruments, and even mobile.
One of the main implications for growers is being able to produce 3D elevation maps of a grower's land and crops. The information acquired from such a precise 3D model of a grower's land will allow them to quickly see which area's are affected by weather the most, inevitably informing them which areas need water and fertilizer the most. In the long run this can save growers time, money, and expenses on labor due to precisely locating more challenging areas of the crop.