Grainswest - Fall 2023

Fall 2023 grainswest.com 17 project, which has received more than $1.5 million from CAAIN. Headquartered in Sioux Falls, S.D., Raven operates a large facility near Regina, SK. Valued at more than $4.1 million, the project has developed advanced technolo- gy for the operation of autonomous equip- ment in broad-acre crop production. This will be used with Raven’s OMNiPOWER platform. Formerly owned by DOT, it was purchased by Raven, which was subsequently bought by CNH Industrial. Though neither CAAIN nor the federal government hold an ownership stake in the technology, in these buyouts alone, it has generated approximately $2 billion in economic activity. This is evidence CAAIN knows how to pick a winner. The U-shaped, autonomous unit is diesel powered and hydraulicly operat- ed. It carries custom-developed imple- ments such as seeders and sprayers. Because OMNiPOWER is self-propelled and carries the implement rather than pulling it as a tractor would, it decreases soil compaction and reduces fuel cost and emissions. Using a tablet equipped with remote-controlled software, the farmer connects the OMNiPOWER-ready implement to the platform for the de- sired application. Using their tablet, the farmer sends an approved path plan to the OMNiPOWER platform, which then completes the task autonomously. “The gap in available skilled labour has been the primary influence for introduc- ing autonomous agricultural solutions to the industry,” said Coppola, citing Canadian Agriculture Human Resource Council statistics. These reveal 47 per cent of farmers reported being unable to find enough workers in 2017. The situation is predicted to worsen with one in four workers retiring by 2025 and it is estimat- ed 200,000 fewer young people will enter agriculture annually by 2025. SUPER GEOAI TECHNOLOGY Weiping Zeng, the co-founder and CEO of Super GeoAI Technology (SGA) of Saskatoon, SK, leads a groundbreaking initiative to automate the grain inspection process. “Grain grading and specification systems play a vital role in ensuring all parties involved in the production, storage and processing of grain comply with the required standards or properties,” said Zeng. The evaluation process now in place is performed by grain inspectors who manually sort and analyze kernels. Zeng noted the method is labour intensive, sub- jective, time-consuming and error-prone. “The grain industry has long been in search of an affordable solution capable of delivering speedy and accurate end-use quality assessments based on represent- ative samples,” said Zeng. “SGA aims to bring this long sought after grain grading solution to reality.” To this end, SGA has developed a geo- spatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) plat- form that will automate the grain grading tasks now carried out by human inspec- tors. With the emergence of transform- ative technologies such as AI and cloud computing, automation and digitization of these processes have rapidly become attainable goals. “When implemented in the field of digital agriculture, GeoAI possesses the potential to ignite a new era of farming productivity and efficiency by automating manual observation tasks,” said Zeng.” Individuals, including farmers and grain buyers, will be able to download the grain grading application on iOS and Android smartphones used to photograph CWRS samples. These sample photos can also be uploaded to the web version of the platform. The system, which was released free of charge on Sept. 22, analyzes the images for greenness, heat, frost damage as well as the presence of ergot, Fusarium and sawfly damage among other factors. Integration of state-of-the-art digital technologies is the key to overcoming pro- ductivity and efficiency challenges, said Zeng. SGA’s next ambition is to introduce the world’s first hands-free technology for crop yield and growth stage estimation. “By pioneering AI-driven, cloud-based decision platforms and applications that automate and streamline manual obser- vations, we can help grain growers and buyers make well-informed decisions more quickly.” To learn more about these and other CAAIN projects, visit caain.ca . “GeoAI possesses the potential to ignite a new era of farming productivity and efficiency by automatingmanual observation tasks.” —Weiping Zeng Photo:CourtesyofSuperGeoAITechnology