No topic sucks more oxygen from the room than AI. Opinions abound around whether AI is a positive or negative, and data centres have become the quintessential NIMBY issue. There is deep fear AI will disrupt the job market, create widespread unemployment and hardship, or worse.
Farmers collect enormous volumes of data through yield maps, soil samples, field records and farm management software. It has been a constant challenge to figure out what to do with it. Think of all those dusty binders and unopened spreadsheets.
It’s funny to discuss AI today as if we haven’t been living our lives with real applications of this seemingly Back to the Future technology for decades. With many examples from ’90s era voice-to-text software and Roombas to social media algorithms and Watson the AI Jeopardy contestant, artificial intelligence has been embedded in our social fabric for some time. It’s only now, given the ability to interact with it, that average citizens are starting to glimpse its true potential.
Perspective is everything and the high-flying bird’s-eye view provided by drones delivers plenty of it. Outfitted with state-of-the-art software augmented with artificial intelligence (AI) technology, drones are increasingly used for an impressive array of agricultural applications.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quietly revolutionizing processes that underpin sectors from astronomy and health care to manufacturing and entertainment. Research and development of AI in agriculture and agri-food is likewise revolutionary, with products now available or galloping toward commercial release.
With the use of artificial intelligence and optical sensing, Regina-based Precision AI aims to enlist drones in crop spraying to reduce herbicide use and field compaction.
The next great leap in digital agriculture, the adoption of intelligent technologies is a complex work in progress. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are engineered to produce agronomic insights farmers can act upon from a vast flow of information that includes precision ag field data, weather, soil and yield data as well as drone and satellite imagery.
Crop breeders test thousands of plant lines every year in small, individual test plots. Assessing these plants involves both quantitative and qualitative analysis, but new software aims to substantially refine the process. PlotVision is a new software service that collects data using unmanned aerial imagery (UAI) captured by drones. The data may help researchers predict harvest yield and assess disease resistance, accelerate the plant breeding process and the production of new crop varieties.
The CEO of DOT Autonomous
Robotic Farm Solutions, Robert Said wants to change the public’s view of farming.
Knowing what weeds, insects and diseases are in the field and how to treat them is an important part of proactive management.
