Smart Agriculture: How AI, Agri-Robotics, and IoT are Shaping the Farm of Tomorrow

Smart agriculture, and in particular agri-robotics, are transforming how farms operate. Traditionally demanding and labor intensive tasks like weed removal, as well as seeding and harvesting can now be performed with full automation and a high degree of precision.

Automation extends to the integration of machine-vision systems into crop health and pest management on a real-time basis, while end-to-end IoT networks deliver comprehensive supply-chain traceability and quality control.

The combination of machine vision enabled autonomous vehicles and networked sensors is empowering farmers at field level, and reducing overheads and negative environmental impacts. As scalability improves, the initial cost vs. return on investment equation is increasingly favorable for growers.

Agri-robotics has a key role to play in the development of next generation smart agriculture operations that can provide climate change resilience and will be less dependent on a seasonal workforce. The adoption of emerging technologies, particularly by family run agribusinesses and smallholders can potentially make a major contribution to sustainability and global food security.

Blue River Technology (John Deere)-Farmers’ first line of defense against weeds is chemical sprays. Previous weed control technologies depended on generalized spraying of agricultural plots to eliminate weeds. This blanket approach is inherently wasteful and the unnecessary use of chemical herbicides and weedkillers causes unwanted environmental impacts. Blue River Technology offers innovative See & Spray™ solutions that combine machine learning with a computer vision system to deliver precise robotic weed control.

See & Spray™ robots are capable of accurately differentiating between crops and weeds. They can then direct precision applications of herbicide onto individual weeds. Aggressive weeds that compete with crops for sunlight and nutrients can be eliminated on a sustainable basis, saving growers time and money.  See & Spray™ is one of the most promising agri-robotics technologies on the market and the acquisition of Blue River Technologies by John Deere pretty much ensures that See & Spray™ technologies will have access to major global markets.

ICL Group is one of the world’s leading specialty minerals companies and is also one of the largest and most innovative fertilizer manufacturers in the world. In addition to offering controlled release and sustainable fertilizer solutions, ICL is also a digital innovator. ICLeaf uses infrared x-ray technology that can measure a spectrum, and precisely calibrates the spectrum to perform a precision nutritional analysis. ICLeaf was developed using machine learning in order to identify nutrient elements and crop characteristics with a very high level of accuracy.