The latest adaptations to help farmers were on display at the AgRobotics Demo Day at the Ontario Crops Research Station, Simcoe, in July.
Kristin Obeid, group co-chair, said she was approached by Chatham-Kent farmer Chuck Baresich, saying he had two robots he wanted to experiment with.
“I jumped in with two feet since everybody should have a chance to participate,” she said.
Baresich, who has since started Haggerty Robotics, pointed to the labour shortages in the agriculture sector and the growing number of herbicide-resistant weeds as problems facing the industry.
“I didn’t want to wake up in 20 years and have a problem,” he said.
Many of the robots are currently built in Europe and the United States, but Baresich questioned why they couldn’t be built in Ontario.
“There are times it makes sense to take existing technologies and adapt them,” he said. “There are also times we can take a brainchild from Ontario and make a new product.”
After Baresich approached the ministry in 2021, the group was formed and began to look into the possibility of using robots and artificial intelligence (A.I.) to solve many problems growers are facing. At the end of the first year, the group was working with five different robots. That number has now grown to 20 different robot models working in the province, some on farms and others in research trials, with a goal of reaching 30 by the end of the year. The group’s membership has expanded to over 180 people from all over the world.
The group now includes representation from: OMAFRA, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Municipal Governments, Haggerty AgRobotics, University of Guelph, McMaster University, University of Waterloo, Conestoga College, Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association (OFVGA), Fresh Vegetable Growers of Ontario (FVGO), Holland Marsh Growers Association (HMGA), Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG), Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario (IFAO), Nortera, Korechi Innovations (Oshawa, Ontario), Nexus Robotics (Montreal Quebec), FarmDroid (Denmark), Naio Technologies (France) and Raven Industries (Canada and U.S) and many more.
The group’s purpose is not to sell robots, but to provide input on how to improve the machines to work better in Ontario production systems. The group has been really successful at building cross functional teams and finding the right partners to solve important problems growers are facing.
The AgRobotics Demo Day attracted a lot of attention, with more than 170 people registered.
Here are the products displayed.
AgXeed AgBot 2-055W3
This Netherlands-built tractor is an automonous diesel that will spray, mow and flail. At the Simcoe day it was set up to work in an orchard, but has many other uses.
The Agbot will mow and spray at the same time. Not only will it spray, but it will spray intelligently. It can read chlorophyll levels to aid with spot spraying, judging where spray is needed and where it isn’t.
“We are using this technology to be more efficient with our spraying,” said Sean Bartlett of Provide Agro.
Intelligent spraying also comes into play with spraying apple trees. The ag bot can spray different volumes for individual trees, dependent on the development stage of the apples.
The tractor has a camera on it so the operator can remotely see what it is doing. For instance, if there was a bin left in the row, the operator could access the camera to see what stopped the machine. This works in conjunction with Lidar that will scan what’s in front of the unit.
If there are problems, the company can access the unit over GPS for diagnostics.
A 100 horsepower tractor plus a sprayer unit is $375,000 CDN). Bartlett said the uses are much broader, and it can be used for many things a tractor can.
“The idea is to utilize it for as many things as you can for that payback,” he said.
Crop Tracker App
This neat smart phone app will use Lidar on an I phone Pro to measure apple size and count. It will give an average size and count per tree.
The app is free to members of the Ontario Apple Growers or Ontario Tender Fruit Association.
Launched in February by a Kingston company, the app is constantly being improved and is already on version 9.
Augean Robotics Burro
The Burro reflects well on its namesake, which was a pack animal. This robot is basically a flat platform used for harvest assistance; with the addition it can mow. Security cameras can also be put on it and a bird banger added.
The Burro is available in three sizes, with the cost varying from $21,000 CDN for the smallest and $33,000 CDN for the largest.
The main function is fruit pickers can have the unit trail them as they harvest to hold the fruit. When the bins or baskets are full, the operator presses a button and the unit travels to the staging location for unloading.
This unit uses GPS for navigation and is battery powered. The battery life is eight to 10 hours, and the unit can be programmed to go to the charging unit at night.
VitiRover
The VitiRover is a robotic lawnmower that can cut 10 acres over a two-week period. It will recognize areas with longer grass that grows faster and will cut those areas more often.
This $12,000 robot is solar powered. The battery lasts eight hours and then the unit returns to the docking station to charge.
Harvest Corp Technologies asparagus harvester
This unit, built in Tillsonburg, will harvest asparagus by height or girth. It uses cameras to judge the spears, making instant decisions if an individual spear will be harvested, cut and dropped if it’s deformed or left to grow.
A powerful vision system and AI learning are at the centre of deciding what spears are cut. An oscillating cutter is used to cut, then a gripper puts the spears on a conveyor to a bin.
Company president Steve Spanjers estimated the robot to be 95 per cent accurate of what it picked and left. He suggested one person could go behind the machine to get what the machine missed.
Currently, the harvester is powered by a Yamaha generator. A battery and solar system are being examined for the future.
Cost is about $400,000 for a four-row machine. It’s estimated the payback on the machine will be 3.5 years based on a production cost of 26 cents per pound, and this may be able to be lowered through ACI grants.
Vivid Machines Vivid X Vision System
This is ultimate crop load management system for thinning, farm management, and yield. The Vivid X Vision System mounts onto any farm equipment and provides real time data and predictions for every plant. It will improve orchard management with up-to-date maps detailing precise tree counts, varieties, and rootstocks, while monitoring blossoms, fruit development, and yield at the block and section level.
Picketa Systems
This company’s tissue sample analyzer takes a job that required mailing in samples and turns it into instant plant tissue data in the field. This information is vital in assessing the plant health and if more nutrients are needed to be applied.
The analysis is performed using the LENS system and provides immediate results. The software will track the results and provide trends that can be assessed.
Naio Technologies Oz
Targeted at market gardeners, this French-made electric tractor is versatile and can perform a variety of functions, including hoeing, weeding, seeding, spraying and transporting plants or end product for a base area.
It costs $60,000, and is completely automatic.
Korchi Innovations
This Ontario company is in the process of developing this tractor with the working group. Its stage of development is early enough that the company does not want photos released of it.
Working with the University of Guelph, it can identify weeds in the field. For example, if a grower identified a problem with lima beans that were contaminating a portion of the field, the tractor can identify the weed density with cameras and a decision can be made about how much herbicide is applied in different sections of the field. If the weed problem becomes too severe, a decision can be made to avoid harvesting an area with too much weed contamination.
Obeid explained where humans typically only scout 10 per cent of the acreage previously for weeds, this technology makes it possible to scout 100 per cent of the fields.
“That’s what this is about is doing the farming process better,” Haggerty said.
Comentários