Artificial Intelligence use

cases in Agriculture
Prepared by http://ai.business
E-mail: [email protected]

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 USE CASE – Automated irrigation systems
An automated irrigation system refers to the operation of the system with no or just
a minimum of manual intervention beside the surveillance.
Several types of such systems exists
• Closed Loop Systems – based on a predefined irrigation scheme the control system takes over and makes
detailed decisions on when and how much water to apply
• Open Loop Systems – based on the amount of water to be applied and the timing of the irrigation
• Volume Based System – The pre-set amount of water can be applied in the field
• Time Based System – works with time clock controllers

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business (Adapted from BOMAN et al. 2006)
 Automated irrigation systems:
EFFECT OF USAGE

• Reducing production costs of vegetables, making the industry more competitive and
sustainable.
• Maintaining (or increasing) average vegetable yields
• Minimizing environmental impacts caused by excess applied water and subsequent
agrichemical leaching.
• Maintaining a desired soil water range in the root zone that is optimal for plant growth.
• Low labor input for irrigation process maintenance
• Substantial water saving compared to irrigation management based on average
historical weather conditions.
Source: Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management (SSWM)
http://www.sswm.info/content/automatic-irrigation
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE – TADD (Trainable Anomaly Detection
and Diagnosis)
Potato sorting system

A robotic system that sorts and can detect diseases of potatoes

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Potato sorting system
EFFECT OF USAGE

• Higher precision of detection of affected/unhealthy potatos

versus manual selection in industrial scale
• Lower labor input
• Possibility for higher food safety assurance

Source: Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems

https://lcas.lincoln.ac.uk/wp/projects/
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE - Drones for crop spraying
• Easy-to-fly devices that are designed to spray pesticides on crops.
• With drones it is also possible to capture high resolution images of whole field
for further analysis.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Drones for crop spraying
EFFECT OF USAGE
• Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sprayer does not need a runway
• Drones can take off and land vertically.
• Flying at low altitude of several meters, the crop-spraying can be controlled
in any the sight of distance range.
• Drones are suitable for all kinds of complex terrain, crops and plantations of
varying heights.
• Precise and accurate crop spraying ensures the best coverage and
application of your fertilizers or pesticides on your lands.
Source: Homeland Surveillance & Electronics LLC
http://www.uavcropdustersprayers.com
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE - Remote Sensing: Crop Health
Monitoring
• Hyperspectral imaging and 3D Laser Scanning, are capable of rapidly
providing enhanced information and plant metrics across thousands of
acres with the spatial resolution to delineate individual plots and/or plants
and the temporal advantage of tracking changes throughout the growing
cycle

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Remote Sensing
EFFECT OF USAGE

• Conventional methods are often time consuming and generally categorical

in contrast to what can be analyzed through automated digital detection
and analysis technologies categorized as remote sensing tools.
• The trained use of hyperspectral imaging, spectroscopy and/or 3D mapping
allows for the substantial increase in the number of scalable physical
observables in the field
• In effect, the multi sensor collection approach creates a virtual world of
phenotype data in which all the crop observables become mathematical
values.
Source: Galileo Group INC.
http://galileo-gp.com/applications/agriscience/
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE - Face recognition systems for
Domestic Cattle

• Facial recognition of cows in dairy units can

individually monitor all aspects of behavior
in a group, as well as body condition score
and feeding.
• When it comes to lameness, measuring the
arch in the cows’ back could give an early
sign of the problem.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Facial recognition of cows
EFFECT OF USAGE

• With this system it is possible to feed cows a lot less expensively if you know
what they will and will not eat.
• Possible to fix a lame cow before she shows you the signs of lameness, it can
save months of lower production.

Source: Bertrand L. Deputte et al. “Individual Recognition in Domestic Cattle (Bos taurus):
Evidence from 2D-Images of Heads from Different Breeds”
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0004441
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE – “PROSPERO” THE SWARMING
FARMBOT

• “Prospero” is the working prototype of an

Autonomous Micro Planter (AMP) that uses a
combination of swarm and game theory and is
the first of four steps. It is meant to be deployed
as a group or "swarm". The other three steps
involve autonomous robots that tend the crops,
harvest them, and finally one robot that can
plant, tend, and harvest autonomously
transitioning from one phase to another.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Swarm Prospero
EFFECT OF USAGE
• The application of the system increases the productivity of land on a per unit
basis.
• A swarm of small robots like Prospero would have the ability to farm inch by
inch, examining the soil before planting each seed and choosing the best
variety for that spot.
• This would maximizing the productivity of each acre, allow less land to be
converted to farm land, feed more people, and provide a higher standard of
living for those people because they would spend less of their money on
food
Source: Dorhout R&D
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business http://dorhoutrd.com/prospero_robot_farmer
 USE CASE – Strawberry Harvesting Robot
• Automated harvester recently wheeled through rows of strawberry plants
here, illustrating an emerging solution to one of the produce industry’s most
pressing problems: a shortfall of farmhands.
 Strawberry Harvesting Robot
EFFECT OF USAGE

• Increased mechanization of the fresh-produce industry boosts productivity,

ultimately helping to tamp down price growth.
• It also help farmers, who are struggling with a yearlong drought in the
country’s largest produce state, get more from their fields, offsetting higher
costs.
• The system allows to avoid the labor shortages, existing in many developed
countries

Source: Agrobot LLC

http://www.agrobot.com/
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE - Autonomous Early Warning System for
Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) outbreaks
• This autonomous early warning system, built upon the basis of wireless sensor networks
and GSM networks effectively captures long-term and up-to-the-minute natural
environmental fluctuations in fruit farms.
• In addition, two machine learning techniques, self-organizing maps and support vector
machines, are incorporated to perform adaptive learning and automatically issue a
warning message to farmers and government officials via GSM networks.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Autonomous Early Warning System
EFFECT OF USAGE
• The use of autonomous early warning system for detecting pest resurgence is an
essential task to reduce the probabilities of massive Oriental fruit fly outbrakes.
• By preventing pest outbreaks, farmers would be able to reduce their dependence
on chemical pesticides. Chemical pesticide abuse often brings harmful
consequences to human health and natural environments.
• The proposed early warning system can be easily adopted in different fruit farms
without extra efforts from farmers and government officials since it is built based
on machine learning techniques, and the warning messages are delivered to their
mobile phones as text messages.

Source: Min-Sheng Liao et al.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016816991200172X
 USE CASE - The ENORASIS Wireless Sensors
Network

• The ENORASIS project uses a network of

sensors in the fields to determine how
much water to give their crops through
subsurface drip and micro-irrigation
systems. The sensors collect
environmental and soil conditions such as
soil humidity, temperature, sunshine,
wind speed, rainfall and the water valves
to quantify water already added to the
fields.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Enorasis
EFFECT OF USAGE

• ENORASIS combines weather forecast and sensor data about the farm’s
crops to create a detailed daily irrigation plan that best suits the needs of
each crop.
• The model also includes crop yield data and energy and water costs, helping
farmers decide whether extra irrigation will increase yields profitably or
cause a loss.

Source: Enorasis
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business http://www.enorasis.eu/page/ENORASIS_wireless_sensors_network
 USE CASE – “VEEPRO”: information center for
Dutch (dairy) cattle

• This AI expert system is able to prescribe feed rations,

medications, health and welfare conditions for
livestock
• It can recommend the mating partners for improving
genetic potential of offspring.
• The expert system is able to perform complex analysis
of health, reproduction status of individual or groups of
animals, to keep track of production and recommend
operational measures to be taken in order to improve
the farm performance

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 VeePro
EFFECT OF USAGE

• Gives information about dairy cattle improvement and health care.

• Supports dairy husbandry, dairy cattle improvement and health care.
• The system can develop and implement fine-tuned breeding programs. The
most important selection criteria are milk production, fat and protein
percentage, age durability, functional traits (udder, feet and legs), fertility,
health, calving ease, and type. The indexes for calculating the breeding
values are constantly updated according to the newest scientific insights.

Source: VeeproHolland
http://veepro.nl/
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE - Decision Support System (DSS) for
Greenhouse Tomato Yield Prediction using AI
Techniques
• This system involves a set of Artificial Intelligence based
techniques:
• Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs)
• Genetic Algorithms (GAs)
• Grey System Theory (GST).
• Use of artificial intelligence based methods can offer a
promising approach to yield prediction and compared
favorably with traditional methods.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 DSS for Greenhouse
EFFECT OF USAGE

• The system allows to predict the environmental conditions that influence

the growth and productivity of tomato plants including air temperature (day
and night), fruit temperature, radiation, CO2 concentration, fruit load, plant
density, stress etc.
• DSS makes possible to adjust the fluctuation of temperature affecting
mostly the time of fruit ripening and rate of fruit growth.

Source: University of Warwck, UK

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/56210/
 USE CASE – Precision Lettuce Thinning by
“BLUE RIVER TECHNOLOGY”
• A lettuce-thinning robot in California, is used for the thinning and weeding of lettuce to
increase yield. Its vision system scrutinizes each plant and then applies “advanced artificial
intelligence algorithms that make plant-by-plant decisions” to optimize yield and then
eliminate unwanted plants according to its programming.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Precision Lettuce Thinning
EFFECT OF USAGE
• CHARACTERIZE EVERY PLOT by counting plants and plant spacing,
building canopy height distributions, and measuring key physiological
parameters
• GENERATE TABULAR DATA and statistics for each plot
• BUILD PLOT IMAGE LIBRARY that contains all images and plot
reconstructions from every plot

Source: Blueriver Technology

http://smartmachines.bluerivert.com/
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE – “Zea”
Early season plant-by-plant phenotypic
measurement system

• Zea delivers high-throughput, low-hassle, high-quality plot characterization

metrics, with a stand
count error rate of less than 5% for plants between V2 and V5 (approx. 5-20”
tall).

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 ZEA phenotypic measurement
EFFECT OF USAGE

• Ability to do unbiased, consistent measurements of stand count, plant

spacing, height, greenness and leaf area, across all of locations, at multiple
time points
• Possibility to replace your field crews and all the hidden costs that come
with them

Source: Blueriver Technology

http://smartmachines.bluerivert.com/
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE - Synthesis of a Greenhouse Climate
Controller using AI-based techniques
• Artificial intelligence system and intelligent control methodologies for the
analysis and synthesis of intelligent climate controllers. The system uses
Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) for the
regulation of climate variables like temperature and humidity in artificially
conditioned greenhouses

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Greenhouse Climate Controller
EFFECT OF USAGE
• The work represents a first attempt to apply an AI technique within a greenhouse.
• Due to the physical dynamics involved within a greenhouse the synthesis of a climate
controller becomes a complicated task using traditional control techniques.
• Fuzzy Logic represents a useful tool for solving this problem. From experiments carried out,
FLC gives the best performances in terms of precision, energy and also robustness.
• Work is still in progress in order to implement a biological model of the plants’ growth
depending on environment parameters so that it will be possible to automatically establish
the best control policy and to compute the optimal values for the set-points. Finally, the
economic return could be estimated using a neural network-based forecasting technique.

Source: L. Occhipinti et al.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3659496_Synthesis_of_a_greenh
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business ouse_climate_controller_using_AI-based_techniques
 USE CASE - GIGAS: Guelph Intelligent
Greenhouse Automation System
• GIGAS components include a vision system with multiple cameras to take
images of the plants.

At the back end is a plant database that keeps track of all the plants in the
greenhouse, with a decision support and planning element, where all the
calculations are made. Once a decision is made, that message is sent to the
robot that goes and does the job.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 GIGAS
EFFECT OF USAGE

• This robot can gently pick an individual beefsteak tomato, or properly select
a tomato cluster for supper. The robot also has a different arm adapted for
trimming foliage and de-leafing.
• With this system it is possible to obtain maximum quality yield with best
timing of harvest and other operations.

Source: The Robotics Institute of Guelph

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business http://robotics.uoguelph.ca/node/10
 USE CASE - Computational intelligence and
geo-informatics in viticulture
• Geo-informatics is a type of artificial
intelligence application that combines
geodetic and spatial information processing
methods with computing hardware and
software technologies.
• The system includes modelling the effects of
the environment, such as climate,
atmosphere, soil type, terrain, minerals,
transition metals and irrigation of saline water
on the development of rootstock, to crop
growth and berry ripening rates, protein
conversion in different varieties and their
composition, within and among vineyards.
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 Computational intelligence in viticulture
EFFECT OF USAGE

• Based on the recent developments in viticulture the combination of

experimental methods using conventional and contemporary
computational techniques, together with a range of field dependent
software and hardware components brings valuable data for obtaining
quality yield of grapes and high value wines.

Source: Geoinformatics Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Computing

Sciences Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Businesshttp://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2012/Vouliagmeni/ACA/ACA-12.pdf
 USE CASE - Driverless Tractors
• Using ever-more sophisticated
software coupled with off-the-shelf
technology including sensors, radar,
and GPS, the system allows an
operator working a combine to set
the course of a driverless tractor
pulling a grain cart, position the cart
to receive the grain from the
combine, and then send the fully
loaded cart to be unloaded.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Driverless Tractors
EFFECT OF USAGE

• Possibility to overcome the problem of an inadequate supply of skilled labor

during planting and harvesting
• Allow more acreage to be worked for longer time periods
• Higher efficiency for precision agriculture
• Smaller autonomous systems could prove more economical, especially if
they work continuously.

Source: http://america.pink/driverless-tractor_1320692.html
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE – Fermentrics:
Gas fermentation systems
This system uses artificial intelligence to
predict rapidly the outcome of the
fermentation process in cattle. It can
provide a level of nutritional analysis of a
feed in four hours similar to that achieved
in 48 hours by conventional methods.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 Gas Fermentation System
EFFECT OF USAGE

• The system provides a diagnostic approach to providing qualitative and

quantitative data on the rate and extent of carbohydrate digestion by cattle.
• The system allows allow to rapidly predict the outcome of fermentation and
isolate the effects of additives in during the fermentation process.
• Knowing what happens to digestion over 48 hours is of great value, add in
rates life gets better. One still has a problem in that measured gas levels
represent both C02 and CH4.

Source: Fermentrics
www.fermentrics.com/
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business
 USE CASE - Hortibot robot for weeding

• The Hortibot is about 3-foot-by-3-foot, is self-propelled, and uses global

positioning system (GPS). It can recognize 25 different kinds of weeds and
eliminate them by using its weed-removing attachments.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 HortiBot
EFFECT OF USAGE

• HortiBot is eco-friendly, because it sprays exactly above the weeds

• As the machine is light -- between 200 and 300 kilograms -- so it will not hurt
the soil behind it.
• It is also cheaper than the tools currently used for weed-elimination as it can
work during extended periods of time.

Source: http://orgprints.org/11263/1/ASABE_paper_
All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business S%C3%B8rensen.pdf
 USE CASE – “Glaucus”: CBR system for
fisheries
• Glaucus is a Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) system which aims to help the fish farmers with
their decision making when conduction sorting operations at their aquaculture sites.
• The system also provides data required for proper Fish disease diagnosis and treatment.
• The system is built in Java and uses the jColibri development framework for Case-Based
Reasoning. It retrieves cases based on similarity function from myCBR and jColibri in
addition to custom made ones.

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business

 “Glaucus”: CBR system for fisheries
EFFECT OF USAGE

• Glaucus recognizes the current situation from the case base and uses the
outcome/result of that situation to output a risk with the current situation.
• The case base(memory of situations) is composed of real-world situations
which we have captured from raw data in an industrial database

Source: Norwegian University of Science and Technology

All rights reserved. 2016 http://AI.Business http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:489216/FULLTEXT01.pdf