Swiss startup Ecorobotix is using artificial intelligence to help farmers improve yields while reducing chemical usage. The company’s high-precision crop sprayers are designed to be towed behind a tractor and use six cameras to gather data that’s then fed to algorithms to determine exactly where fertilizers and herbicides should be sprayed.

Reducing Chemical Usage

Cody Anderson, an onion farmer based in Washington state, has reduced the amount of herbicide he’s using on a 20-acre field by 16 times using Ecorobotix’s technology. "It’s allowing us to be more precise in where we put our chemicals, and just helping us be better stewards of the land that we farm," he said.

Agriculture is one of the biggest industries to have historically resisted tech disruption, but the falling costs of compute and hardware are making the unit economics of autonomous tech make more sense for farmers. Revenues from AI-powered agriculture are expected to climb from $1.5 billion in 2023 to $3 billion in 2026.

Autonomous Agriculture

Another company, Danish startup FarmDroid, is developing small, solar-powered autonomous robots that plant seeds and weed fields. The company’s robot is lighter than a tractor, which contributes to healthier soil by not compacting the land as much. "We’re doing less damage by applying less pressure to the soil, which means it is easier for the plants to get water and nutrients from the ground when it’s less compacted," said Rasmus Thuesen, sales manager at FarmDroid.

Using AI in farming settings is complex due to the unpredictability of the environments these devices need to operate in. "Agricultural environments are among the most challenging settings for computer vision. Conditions change constantly: Sunlight intensity, shadows, soil types, weather conditions, crop growth stages, residue, dust, and field variability can all alter what a system sees," said Abbey Flury, global marketing and communications manager at Ecorobotix.

Original reporting: KTVZ (Central Oregon) — read the source article.