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Automation

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PERSONALIZING PLANT CARE WITH AI AND COMPUTER VISIONPERSONALIZING PLANT CARE
WITH AI AND COMPUTER VISION

AI and computer vision help farmers achieve enhanced precision with herbicides,
enabling greater profitability and sustainability.

Jessica Uelmen, Vice President of Engineering

October 18, 2024

4 Min Read
John Deere



AT A GLANCE

 * Farmers who target weeds at the source can produce healthy, successful crops
   with less waste.
 * Advanced robots are guided through the field with extreme precision – down to
   the centimeter.
 * With thousands of types of weeds and varying growing practices, the machine
   is constantly learning.

For centuries, weeds have been a pressing concern for farmers. The earliest
developed weed control technology was plowing and hand-weeding. This involved
farmers hand-pulling and cutting weeds with knives, hoes, and mattocks. This
method of farming is physically demanding and time consuming, and it rarely
succeeds in eliminating all weeds.

Herbicides were later introduced to help alleviate the impact of weeds and pests
on crops, and for many decades, the only way to distribute it was to treat the
entire field. However, in doing so, herbicide can be wasted and placed on other
areas where it’s not needed. This is where technology can change the game.



Precision has always been prioritized by farmers. As weeds continue to threaten
crops and rising temperatures accelerate their growth, farmers are increasingly
turning to advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and
computer vision, to manage weeds more efficiently and cost-effectively. This
enables them to continue farming the food that our growing world population
needs to thrive while remaining good stewards of the land, which is core to
being a farmer.




CUTTING THE PROBLEM AT THE SOURCE



Image courtesy of John Deere.

Imagine a conference room filled with people. One person is sick, but instead of
treating just the infected individual, everyone is given medicine, which is both
wasteful and inefficient. Similarly in agriculture, while a majority of a field
may not have weeds present, historically the entire field would still be sprayed
with herbicides despite the number of healthy plants present. 



Related:Build a Better Automated Farm with the John Deere Operations Center

Farmers who target weeds at the source can produce healthy, successful crops
with less waste. Cutting-edge AI and computer vision technologies have made this
possible by enabling farmers to identify and precisely spray individual weeds
without damaging surrounding crops.


AI AND COMPUTER VISION ARE EVOLVING FARM PRACTICES

A sprayer is a farm vehicle that applies herbicides across a field to eliminate
weeds. Today’s AI-enabled, highly intelligent sprayers feature a boom, the piece
of equipment where nozzles are spread evenly across to distribute the herbicide
to the weeds, that can be up to 120 feet wide. Cameras and processors also
reside on the boom as it moves through the field, helping the farmer “see” well
beyond what the naked eye can. With automated driving technology that uses a
combination of GPS tech and correction signals, these advanced robots are guided
through the field with extreme precision – down to the centimeter – ensuring
crops aren’t damaged and the farmer can focus on the task at hand: spraying.



Related:John Deere Turns to Starlink for Autonomous Tractor Connectivity

Cameras attached to the boom can scan two thousand square feet of land in 1
second, processing what’s being captured to decide when to apply herbicide. Each
image plays a critical role in calculating the position of a weed and taking
action.

Computer vision and AI evaluate each image using a machine learning model
trained with millions of images. This advanced robot is only getting smarter
with time. With thousands of types of weeds and varying growing practices, the
machine is constantly learning. The more photos that are collected, the more
accurate the technology gets, as it adapts to different field conditions, plant
growth stages, the impact of different weather like rain or hail, and more.


BENEFITS OF SPRAYERS ON THE FARM

Farmers might run a sprayer across their field more than ten times during a
typical growing season. And we’re not talking about your backyard garden – these
farms are the size of a small city and there’s millions of plants within them.
This is why precision is everything in agriculture. By enabling farmers to
detect where weeds are growing and apply treatment only where needed, farmers
can cut their herbicide use by two-thirds. Not only does that increase
sustainability on the farm, but it can have a dramatic impact on a farmer’s
bottom line if they can reduce the number of inputs needed to run their
operation.  



Related:Industry Voices: Agricultural Automation Will Feed the World


THE AI-ENABLED FUTURE OF THE MODERN FARM

The world population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, and as diets
continue to improve, farmers will need to produce 50 percent more food. To feed
the rising population, farmers will continue to lean on advanced technology to
give them every advantage in the challenging environment that they work in. AI
and computer vision will help farmers achieve enhanced precision when applying
herbicides, which enables greater profitability and sustainability.   




ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessica Uelmen

Vice President of Engineering, See & Spray and Blue River Technology

Jessica Uelmen is the senior director of engineering for See & Spray at Blue
River Technology (a John Deere Company). In this role, she leads development
across computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and embedded software,
hardware, and systems. Prior to Blue River, she held tenures at a variety of
Silicon Valley companies, including Udacity, Fitbit, and Cruise. Jessica earned
a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering technology from the University of
Central Florida and a master's degree in engineering engagement from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

See more from Jessica Uelmen
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