There are few pieces of equipment in a farming operation that see a field as often as a sprayer during the growing season. We believe that we could leverage the current hardware initially built for harvest and software initially built for the Farwmave app to bring additional data points to a grower to assist in the decision making process of crop health and machine performance during the growing season. Thus increasing efficiencies and potentially reducing the application requirements during the season.
APPROACH
Use the current prototype hardware mounted on a sprayer, partnered with the technology that Farmwave has already built to capture and return visual results for grower decision making purposes. The Farmwave team loaded up a number of different style sprayers with 4-6 cameras to capture data as the machine moved through the field. The specific areas of focus are listed below.
Pest and Disease Identification
Plant counts
Growth Stage (crop height)
Weed Detection (see and spray)
% application coverage
Nozzle performance
Left: Images on a Sprayer moving at 20+km per hour
Far Left Image: Camera Installation
Center Image: 1 meter soybeans
Right Image: Image run through Farmwave AI processing diagnosing pest issue
Entire process: 7 seconds
RESULTS
The results were incredible and the power of the Farmwave made, and continues to make, these developments possible. These units communicate in a closed loop infrastructure while returning results to an in-cab display allowing operators the ability to make decisions and understand what is happening to their crop in parts of the field that may otherwise go un-scouted during the season. Below is an example of the Farmwave Pest and Disease tool being used in final growth stage beans.
KEY LEARNINGS
As technologies continue to converge and hardware prices continue to improve we believe that is it very possible to have 15+ cameras on sprayer focused on and returning results to the grower in real time to help promote strong healthy crop growth all throughout the growing season. The list we are currently focused on is simply based on feedback from growers on what can and will return the most immediate value when running a sprayer through the field. We at Farmwave know that is just the tip of the iceberg on what can be done to improve the health and growth cycle of crops throughout the growing season.
