Category Archives: LandWISE People

AgTech, Automation, Conference, events, LandWISE People, Research

Is the Juice worth the Squeeze?

Chris Roberts

Chris Roberts, Head of Industrial Robotics at Cambridge Consultants UK is confirmed as a keynote speaker for our Annual Conference. LandWISE 2017: Are we ready for automation?

Cambridge Consultants is a world-class supplier of innovative product development engineering and technology consulting with more than 500 staff including scientists, mathematicians, engineers and designers.

Chris was one of the presenters at AgriTech-East’s Robotics Pollinator in October 2016, which Dan attended as part of his Trimble Foundation Study Trip investigating farm robotics.

“I was really impressed with Chris and his presentation. He worked clearly  and methodically through the issues that need very careful consideration.” 

In this presentation Chris will take a look at the prospects for robotic fruit harvesting, an issue of note in New Zealand as production levels rise and labour availability reduces.

Some of Chris’ questions:

  • Automation has existed in agriculture for decades: what’s new?
  • Why hasn’t it happened everywhere already?
  • Which tasks to automate?
  • What has to come together for a  successful harvesting robot?

Chris will address these questions and more at LandWISE 2017.

AgTech, Automation, Conference, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture

Hyperspectral imaging to map species distribution

Tommy Cushnahan is a PhD student at Massey University within the NZ Centre for Precision Agriculture.

Tommy is presenting some of his research at LandWISE 2017: Are we ready for automation?

Remotely sensed hyperspectral data provides the possibility to categorise and quantify the farm landscape in great detail, supplementing local expert knowledge and adding confidence to decisions.

In his presentation, Tommy will explain how hyperspectral aerial imagery is being used to classify various components of the hill country farming landscape. He focuses on development of techniques to identify and classify various vegetation components including water, tracks/soil, Manuka, scrub, gum, poplar and other tree species. 

Tommy’s PhD has been funded by Ravensdown and MPI as part of the PGP project “pioneering to precision”.  A background in agronomy and 15 years’ experience in golf course design, construction and project management has developed an array of real-world skills that has helped shape his research. His goal is for his work to produce tangible benefits for hill country farmers.

LandWISE People, Membership

LandWISE Board 2016-17

A new Board was elected at the Special General Meeting in September 2016.  We welcome new members and thank those retired, some after very long service.

Hugh Ritchie and Scott Lawson retired at the 2016 meeting. Both have been actively involved since the beginning of LandWISE, chairing the Board and helping in many other ways. They remain keen to stay closely involved in advisory capacities.

We are similarly grateful to retiring Mike Flynn and Douglas Giles for their contributions. Mike has also been a solid supporter, long time Board member and with McCain Foods agriculture staff championed the strip-till and minimum tillage work that occupied the first years of LandWISE. Douglas is well known in the Manawatu for his innovative approaches to cropping region.

2016-2017 Board members

  • Mark Burgess, The University of Auckland, Auckland
  • Andrew Dawson, Callaghan Innovation, Wellington
  • Stuart Dykes, Haden & Custance, Hastings
  • John Evans, Tregynon Farm, Canterbury
  • Paul Munro, Peracto NZ, Auckland
  • Brendan Powell, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council
  • Mark Redshaw, Ballance AgriNutrients, Hawke’s Bay
  • Bruce Searle, Plant & Food Research, Hawke’s Bay
  • John van der Linden, Villa Maria Estates, Hawke’s Bay
  • Simon Wilcox, A. S. Wilcox, Pukekohe

New Board Members

John Evans is a long time LandWISE supporter and a cropping farmer from Rakaia near Ashburton. He grows process vegetables, cereals and specialist seed crops and has some grazing. He has a strong technical and computing bent and wide experience with precision agriculture technologies.

Stuart Dykes is GM of Hayden and Custance, a local robotics company. Stuart has wide experience in mechanical engineering and food science including the viticulture sector. He chaired the VOLBI group that put forward the Hawke’s Bay AgTech Regional Research Institute proposal and says the role LandWISE can play connecting research, technology and farmers /growers is enormously valuable.

John van der Linden is Vineyards Systems Manager at Villa Maria Estate with an overview of viticultural practice and special projects. He was one of the active supporters of the regional research institute proposal and believes LandWISE has a key role supporting new technologies and systems in viticulture and other horticultural activities.

Andrew Dawson is GM of Research at Callaghan Innovation. A strong LandWISE supporter over recent years, he has a very strong knowledge of sensing technologies and commercialisation of technology. He sees LandWISE as a key link between practising farmers and the technology community

Mark Burgess is Director, Institute for Innovation in Biotechnology at the University of Auckland. He was previously with Auckland UniServices linking research and industry and has identified LandWISE as a unique organisation in the agri-tech space.

The Future

This year the Board began reviewing our direction, a process to be completed and presented at the May 2017 AGM. Any thoughts? What is important to you?

Talk to a Board Member or Dan – help shape our future

AgTech, Automation, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture, Research, Sensing

In Search of Farm Robots: Ch 1

A version of this article previously appeared in The Grower

Dan Bloomer has been travelling in Australia and Europe asking, “How ready are robots for farmers and how ready are farmers for robots?”

Notable areas of active research and development globally are scouting, weeding and fruit picking.  Success requires machines that can determine and follow a route traversing whatever terrain it must, capture information, identify and selectively remove weeds, and identify, pick and transport fruit.  They have to sense, analyse, plan and act.

Robotics is widespread in industries such as car manufacturing that have the exactly the same task being repeated over and over again. With possible exception of robotic milking, farm operations are not like that. Virtually every single case is unique with unique responses needed.

Many groups around the world are looking at robotic weeding . There are many items needing attention. How do we tell weeds from crop plants? Can we do that fast enough and reliably enough to make a robot commercially viable on-farm? Once identified, how do we optimise robotic arm movement to best attack a patch of weeds?

The Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) at the University of Sydney is well known for its field robots such as the solar powered Ladybird. The new generation Ladybird is known as Rippa, and is currently undergoing endurance testing. Look on YouTube for ACFR videos and you’ll even see SwagBot moving around rolling hill country.

A key theme for Rob Fitch and colleagues is Active Perception: perception being what we can detect with what accuracy and confidence; active meaning in real time and including planning actions. They invest heavily in developing mathematics to get fast results. And they are succeeding.

Using Intel’s RealSense structured light camera it takes them less than half a second to identify and precisely locate groups of apples on a trellis. Within that time they also calculate exactly where to place the camera to get a second confirming view.

Smart maths allow ACFR scientists to capture 3D images and identify and locate apples in less than half a second
Smart maths allow ACFR scientists to capture 3D images and identify and locate apples in less than half a second

Cheryl McCarthy and colleagues at the National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA) are conducting a range of research projects that integrate autonomous sensing and control with on-farm operations to robotically manage inputs within a crop. Major projects include automation for weed spot spraying, adaptive control for irrigation optimisation, and remote crop surveillance using cameras and remotely piloted aircraft.

At LandWISE 2015, Cheryl reported on their machine vision and sensing system for weed detection systems that uses depth and colour segmentation and a new processing technique to operate at commercial ground speeds of 10-15 km/h.

Now Cheryl is using UAVs to capture photos of crops, stitching the pictures to get a whole paddock image, then splitting it up again to efficiently identify and locate individual plants and weeds. This is enabling her to create accurate maps some other weed destroying robot can use.

cherylmccarthy
Research at the University of Southern Queensland investigates UAVs to scout paddocks combined with image stitching and analysis for interpretation to create maps of weeds for later treatment

SwarmFarm founders, Andrew and Jocie Bate grow cereals and pulses near Emerald. Spray-fallow is used to conserve water in this dryland environment and WeedSeeker® and Weedit® technologies reduce chemical use to a very small percentage of traditional broadcast application.

4WD SwarmFarm robots carrying WeedSeeker technology cover the paddock spraying only living weeds
4WD SwarmFarm robots carrying WeedSeeker technology cover the paddock spraying only living weeds

With large areas, most growers move to bigger machinery to maximise labour efficiency. This has a number of adverse effects including significant soil damage and inability to work small areas or work efficiently around obstacles such as trees.

SwarmFarm chose robots as practical light weight equipment. They reason that several small machines working together reduce soil impact and have the same work rate as one big machine. Andrew estimates that adoption of 8 m booms versus 34 m booms could increase the effective croppable area in Queensland by 2%.

Are these robots ready for farmers? Are farmers ready for these robots?

Only SwarmFarm has multiple machines currently working on farm in Australia. They are finalising a user interface that will allow non-graduate engineers (smart farmers) to manage the machines.

The question that remains is, “Why would I buy a specialised machine when I can put a driver on a cheaper conventional tractor or higher work rate sprayer and achieve the same?”

Is it the same?

Travel to Australia was supported by a Trimble Foundation Study Grant

AgTech, Automation, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture, Research, Sensing, Soil, Tillage

In Search of Farm Robots: Ch3 Switzerland, France and England

This article originally appeared in “The Grower”

A desire to reduce soil compaction and avoid high and inefficient use of chemicals and energy inspired Steve Tanner and Aurelien Demaurex to found eco-Robotix in Switzerland.

Their solution is a light-weight fully solar-powered weeding robot, a 2 wheel drive machine with 2D camera vision and basic GPS. Two robotic arms position herbicide nozzles or a mechanical device for precision weed control.

Steve Tanner lab testing the exoRobotix vision and robotic weed control system

The ecoRobotix design philosophy is simplicity and value: avoiding batteries cuts weight, technology requirements and slashes capital costs. It is a step towards their vision of cheap autonomous machines swarming around the farm.

 Bought by small farms, Naio Technologies’ Oz440 is a small French robot designed to mechanically weed between rows. The robots are left weeding while the farmer spends time on other jobs or serving customers. Larger machines for vegetable cropping and viticulture are in development.

Prototypes V1, V2 and V3; precursors to the Naio Oz440 show the steps in a robot’s development

Naio co-founder Gaetan Severac notes Oz440 has no GPS, relying instead on cameras and LiDAR range finders to identify rows and navigate. These are small machines with a total price similar to a conventional agricultural RTK-GPS system, so alternatives are essential. 

Tech companies have responded and several “RTK-GPS” systems are now available under $US1000. Their accuracy and reliability is not known!

Thorvald an example of research collaboration: Norwegian University robot being automated at University of Lincoln show the common design of four wheel steer and four wheel drive

Broccoli is one of the world’s largest vegetable crops and is almost entirely manually harvested, which is costly. Leader Tom Duckett says robotic equipment being developed at the University of Lincoln in England is as good as human pickers at detecting broccoli heads of the right size, especially if the robot can pick through the night.  With identification in hand, development is now on mechanical cutting and collecting.

In 1996, Tillett and Hague Technologies demonstrated an autonomous roving machine selectively spraying individual cabbages.  Having done that, they determined that tractors were effective and concentrated on automating implements. They are experts in vision systems and integration with row and plant identification and machinery actuation, technology embedded in Garford row crop equipment. 

Parrish Farms has their own project adapting a Garford mechanical to strip spray between onion rows. Nick Parrish explained that Black Grass control was difficult, and as available graminicides strip wax off onions boom spraying prevents use of other products for up to two weeks.

Simon Blackmore is a global leader in farm robotics thinking at Harper Adams University. His effort to address robotic safety issues includes a seven level system:

  1. Route planning to avoid hazards and known obstacles
  2. Laser range finder to sense objects and define them as obstacles
  3. Wide area safety curtain sensing ground objects at 2m
  4. Dead man’s handle possibly via smartphone
  5. Collapsible bumper as a physical soft barrier that activates Stop
  6. Big Red Buttons anyone close can see and use to stop the machine
  7. Machines that are small, slow and light minimise inertia

“Hands free hectare” is Harper Adams University’s attempt to grow a commercial crop using open source software and commercially available equipment in an area no-one enters.

Harper Adams research to develop a robotic strawberry harvester is notable for the integration of genetics for varieties with long stalks, a growing system that has plants off the ground, and the robotic technologies to identify, locate and assess the ripeness of individual berries and pick them touching only the peduncle (stalk).

So what have I learned about farm robotics?

  • People believe our food production systems have to change
  • Farm labour is in short supply throughout the western world
  • Machines can’t get bigger as the soil can’t support that
  • Robotics has huge potential but when
  • Safety is a key issue but manageable
  • There is huge investment in research at universities, but also in industry
  • It’s about rethinking the whole system not replacing the driver
  • There are many technologies available, but probably not the mix you want for your application.

As Simon Pearson at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing says, “It’s a Frankenstein thing, this agrobotics. There are all sorts of great bits available but you have to seek them out and stitch them together yourself to make the creature you want.”

Dan’s travel was supported by a Trimble Foundation Study Grant

AgTech, Automation, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture

NZ AgTech meets Silicon Valley

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This article previously appeared in The Grower

You can read about things, but actually experiencing them is something else.

Dan Bloomer joined Callaghan Innovation , NZTE and two dozen New Zealand agricultural technology organisations for a week in San Francisco.

The purpose was to understand how New Zealand could fit with the US agricultural technology scene. We visited UC Davis, agricultural technology companies, Silicon Valley start-ups and venture capital firms.  We visited an almond orchard, a vineyard and a winery in Napa Valley. We went to a large raspberry farm in Salinas.

Driscoll’s berry fruit operation highlighted the difference in scale between New Zealand and the USA. With $US 3 billion in annual sales and a global growing and sales network, they have an advanced and comprehensive R&D programme.

The issues facing Driscoll’s are fully familiar to any farmer in New Zealand: produce more from less, reduce wastage all along the supply chain, prevent nutrient loss to water, address the disappearing labour force, meet increasing regulatory requirements, prove provenance and food safety, and get the best product to the right market in excellent condition at an acceptable price.

While at Driscoll’s we heard from technology companies with whom they are collaborating to address issues facing them now and in the future.

AgroBot is a machine developed by a Spanish entrepreneur to automate picking small produce like strawberries.

HarvestPort provides an on-line connection to share seasonally used resources such as fruit bins or crates.

Growcentia is developing microbial biostimulants to increase crop production and decrease the environmental impact of agriculture.

GeoVisual is focused on remote sensing and big data analytics to improve and predict crop yields, better manage croplands and improve harvests.

Food Origins is focused on precision data collection and analytic services for hand harvested produce.

Each of these could add value in New Zealand.

AgTech is growing very fast. Wharf42 reported that 499 companies attracted US $4.6 billion of venture capital investment in 2015, nearly doubling 2014 figures. 303 companies were in the US. India came second with 64 and Australia 11th with 6 investments.  Although we have some local investment, New Zealand didn’t register on the global stage.

In New Zealand we are impressed by million dollar investments. Climate Corporation was bought by Monsanto for $US 1 billion. It aims “to build a digitized world where every farmer is able to optimize and flawlessly execute every decision on the farm”.  Yamaha just bought a share in UAV company PrecisionHawk in a $US 18 million deal.

We spoke with venture capital firms about accessing funding. Swamped by opportunities within two hours of the San Francisco CBD, they have no need of New Zealand. So New Zealand needs to have excellent technology, travel to them and have obvious local presence.

The week of intense stimulation, new experiences and gaining new understandings left me very positive about New Zealand technology capability and about our prospects in the world agtech markets.

We have numerous New Zealand companies that easily compete on a technology level with what we saw.  We can do it, and with Callaghan Innovation , NZTE and private initiatives, there are things in place to help New Zealand companies succeed in this enormous market. But we have to think differently and execute very well.

When the right technology gets presented in the right way in the right place things can happen very fast. After winning a major US innovation award for its noise-reducing drone technology, nine month old New Zealand startup Dotterel Technologies is on a fast track to global success. We need more Dotterels.

This visit was organised by Wharf42, NZTE, Callaghan Innovation and the Silicon Valley Forum.

Agronomy, LandWISE People, MicroFarm, Plant Health, Projects, Research, Soil, Tillage

MicroFarm Cover Crops Incorporated

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oatsvsmustard

Many thanks to Nicolle Contracting and True Earth Organics for getting our winter cover crops incorporated today.

incorporatecovercrops

This winter saw a repeat of last year’s split planting of Caliente Mustard and Oats to compare effects on soil, disease and plant growth. Seed was provided by True Earth Organics.

To gain benefit from the fumigant properties of the Caliente, it must be soil incorporated as soon as possible. This is why we have the two tractors closely following, one mulching the crop, the other incorporating the residues.

Mulching mustard - reasonable biomass, but some insect damage reducing leaf mass
Mulching mustard – reasonable biomass, but some insect damage reducing leaf mass
mulchingoats
Mulching before incorporating oats

Onions are to be planted in this area for a third season in succession. Our onion crop will also include a new area that has never had onions planted before. As part of our collaboration with Onions New Zealand and Plant and Food Research, we will compare the performance of crops in the different areas.

AgTech, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture, Research

Sprout Accelerator

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Sprout

Sprout is a new agritech accelerator programme delivered by The BCC, Building Clever Companies in Palmerston North.

Entrepreneur-in-Residence Stu Bradbury is well known to the LandWISE community through his role starting and growing Where’s My Cows, Precision Irrigation and its Variable Rate Irrigation technology and more recently setting up AgriOptics in the North Island..

Stu will be introducing the Sprout Accelerator programme at LandWISE 2016 and giving a brief review of its first achievements.

Accompanying Stu are representatives from two successful Sprout programme participants, AgriTrack and Bee’z Thingz.

Dunedin entrepreneurs Andrew Humphries and Tom Rivett created AgriTrack to help large scale crop farmers with the multitude of logistical challenges during harvest time, particularly those associated with vehicle management. Their solution enables live tracking of vehicles and is already being used in more than 30 farms in Western Australia.

Dunedin entrepreneurs Andrew Humphries and Tom Rivett created AgriTrack  (C) Sprout

Mangere Bridge duo Julian McCurdy and Peter Bennett set up Beez Thingz using technology to develop a platform for hive management so a network of kept bees could be accessed by everyone in the industry.

Beez Thingz founders Julian McCurdy and Peter Bennett Image (C) Sprout
Beez Thingz founders Julian McCurdy and Peter Bennett Image (C) Sprout

Just three more exciting offerings at LandWISE 2016!

Register here>

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Controlled Traffic Systems, LandWISE People, MicroFarm, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Sensing, Soil, Water

Excellent LandWISE 2016 Conference Speakers

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We published the list and short biographies of our invited speakers today. We are again privileged to have an extremely knowledgeable group representing farmers, technologists and researchers from both sides of the Tasman Sea.

Conference keynotes and new LandWISE Australians include Ian Layden and Julie O’Halloran, precision horticulture researchers and extension specialists from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF).

Ian and Julie are leading a group of two dozen top growers and agronomists for a week of related events built around the LandWISE Conference. Queensland farmer Ben Moore and Tasmanian farmer Robbie Tole will present their own experiences investigating precision horticulture opportunities.

Returning LandWISE Australians are Tristan Perez from Queensland University of Technology and John McPhee from the University of Tasmania. Tristan will update us on progress with weeding robot AgBot II and Harvey the capsicum picker. John will tell us about precision horticulture research underway in Tasmania.

Parallel work is being done in New Zealand. Look for reports from  Plant and Food researchers Sarah Sinton, Paul Johnstone and long serving LandWISE Board member Bruce Searle. Chris Smith from AgriOptics, Jane Adams of OnionsNZ and LandWISE’s Dan Bloomer and Justin Pishief will overlay a series of precision cropping and related topics.  Charles Merfield from the Future Farming Centre will give a review of biostimulants and related technologies – a different aspect of the agritech revolution.

Rounding out Day 1 are agritech accelerator Sprout Entrepreneur in Residence Stu Bradbury and two accelerating companies represented by Tom Rivett and Julian McCurdy.

Day 2 has a focus on value from data and robotics. We hear a lot about “big data” and “value chains”: what are they? Alistair Mowat, James Beech and Megan Cushnahan will tell us how they and others are getting real value, and where there’s still value to be tapped. Roger Williams will outline how Plant and Food is investing in digital horticulture research.

Lincoln Agritech’s Armin Werner has been a regular attendee at LandWISE. This year he takes the stage with a global review of field robotics and weeding technologies in particular. Kit Wong will tell us about Callaghan Innovation development of systems for machine vision to manage onion crops.

David Herries of Interpine will take us to a different sector and explain how UAVs are giving value in forest research and management.  And rounding it all up, Simon Morris of ALtus UAS will make sure we understand the regulations governing our use of this still new but very powerful technology.

So come to LandWISE 2016: the value of smart farming. Have you mind expanded, your knowledge updated and your excitement kindled. Mix and mingle with leaders in farming, agronomy and agtech!

Conference programme here>

Speaker biographies here>

Conference registration here>