Swiss startup Ecorobotix is using artificial intelligence to help farmers improve yields while reducing chemical usage. The company’s onion algorithm is particularly strong, with many farmers using it to reduce herbicide use. Cody Anderson, an onion farmer in Washington state, has reduced his herbicide use by 16 times using Ecorobotix’s technology.

Agriculture and AI

Agriculture has historically been slow to adopt new technologies, but the falling costs of compute and hardware are making autonomous tech more viable for farmers. Ecorobotix’s high-precision crop sprayers use cameras and algorithms to determine where fertilizers and herbicides should be sprayed, reducing the use of these products by up to 95%.

Another company, FarmDroid, is using autonomous robots to plant seeds and weed fields. The robots are solar-powered and contribute to healthier soil by not compacting the land as much as tractors do. FarmDroid’s sales manager, Rasmus Thuesen, says that the company’s robot is one of the most affordable autonomous agriculture robots available, and that it uses precision GPS rather than AI to drive and locate itself.

The use of AI in farming is complex due to the unpredictability of agricultural environments. Ecorobotix’s global marketing and communications manager, Abbey Flury, says that the company’s technology can reduce the use of nonselective herbicides, which are more potent and can get rid of weeds quicker. However, the company faces competition from other startups, and Flury says that it’s hard to convince farmers to adopt new technologies due to the high upfront costs.

Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.