June 2022 - 6

DIGICROP
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
SmartFarm moves the cloud to the
farm. In the familiar app store model,
growers can download apps via edge
cloud computer systems, which are
low-cost and self-managing computing
appliances.
SmartFarm systems are being
investigated for use in different precision
ag applications, including farm zone
identification. The app identifies
zones and reports them to growers for
optimized management of those regions.
In microclimate sensing for precision
frost protection, physical modeling and
sensor data can help predict the onset and
duration of freezes, allowing growers to
use the data to automatically control wind
machines for air mixing or irrigation
to warm the air and protect their plants
against frost damage.
Root farming robotics
Robots are being deployed in central
Europe to help sweet potato and seed
potato growers counter labor shortages
and costs. Alexander Langer, an industrial
engineer and co-founder of Schmiede, a
German firm that creates business models
and robotic systems for construction and
agriculture industries, discussed robotic
automation in root crop farming.
In its second generation, Schmiede's
fully autonomous Harvey One uses
stereo cameras mounted on the front
of the machine as well as the intake belt
to monitor crop row profiles and soil
volume. Because every extra kilogram of
soil growers must dig and work through
affects fuel efficiencies, such monitoring is
vital, Langer said.
The machines are being prepared for
assisted harvesting, including automated
weeding work. Langer said he's working
to produce the machinery in mass
volume to lower costs and allow more
grower adoption.
" What does the future of farming look
Digicrop 2022 was a scientific event that targeted an audience working at the intersection of engineering, robotics, computer science,
crop sciences, agricultural sciences, phenotyping and economics. Photo: Digicrop 2022
like? " he said. " I don't quite know, but
the premise thus far has always been
pushing economies of scale by creating
bigger machinery, controlling your fleets
through intelligent software, planning
(and) analyzing to crank out that last bit
of improvement. That may be viable for
large-scale farming, but not for niches. "
Berry vision
A highly practical AI agricultural
application involves building vision
systems that can precisely recognize
individual healthy plants, allowing
growers to target treatments without
damaging other normal instances.
Taeyeong Choi, a postdoctoral
research associate in the Lincoln AgriRobotics
Centre at University of Lincoln,
United Kingdom, studies AI computer
vision and robotics for augmented
intelligence in agriculture.
He discussed a system that collected
3,500 images of strawberries from his
university using a mobile robot with
a camera. The robot is being trained
to detect normal and anomalous
strawberries visually.
The research, however, showed that
damaged fruit images were rare compared
to normal fruit and that the robot would
need to be better trained. Choi turned
to Google Brain scientists, who solved a
similar issue.
" What we expect of these agricultural
robots is the capability of modeling the
environment of the field precisely, " Choi
said. " In this indoor strawberry farm,
you can imagine using a mobile robot
that can monitor qualities of individual
berries using visual sensors. If the human
farmers can learn from the robot which
strawberries are unhealthy or damaged,
they can perform special treatments and
get a more accurate estimation. "
AI berries
Other research involves real-time
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fruit monitoring and examining
through a mobile robotics platform for
strawberry inspection and harvesting
within precision indoor farming
systems (PIFS). A mobile robotics
platform (MRP) is being developed to
provide indoor farming operations the
ability to monitor individual strawberry
plants' growing status and harvest ripe
strawberries non-destructively.
The research, from Guoqiang Ren,
a doctorate candidate in the Zhejiang
University/University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Institute, saw an
average 88% success rate. The research
showed small fruit performed better than
berries with elongated angles or enlarged
body widths. " MPR has the ability to
inspect and harvest strawberries within
PIFS, " Ren said. " It can work smarter. "
The University of California and
UC Cooperative Extension partnered
with Digicrop 2022, which was
organized by the University of Bonn,
the German Cluster of Excellence
" PhenoRob - Robotics and Phenotyping
for Sustainable Crop Production " and
the AI Institute for Next Generation
Food Systems. Numerous presentations
also covered crop breeding of grains
and other commodities and digital
and AI technologies to improve crop
nutritional quality and abiotic stress
tolerance. VGN
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June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2022