Autonomous mobile platform for pest detection and control inside greenhouses
Developing automation solutions to improve greenhouse crop yields sustainably.
Developing a robot that can move autonomously inside greenhouses to detect plagues in very early stages and apply pesticides.
The Green Patrol solution has been brought about by the need to implement sustainable agricultural practices based on using pesticides in a rational manner to enhance the quality and competitiveness of crops
Tekniker has been involved in this project focused on manufacturing an innovative system equipped with AI to improve agricultural production in greenhouses.
More specifically, this autonomous mobile robot that allows for the detection and identification of plagues affecting greenhouse plants in very early stages is used to apply the most suitable chemical treatments according to strategies defined in advance by experts.
The system features vision sensors and Deep Learning technology using comparative data bases that contain images of a number of insects in different stages of their life cycles.
Thanks to these technologies, the robot can select the most suitable treatment that is only applied to the affected area to minimise the use of pesticides. The system uses the European GNSS Galileo navigation system to move autonomously inside the greenhouse.
Tekniker was put in charge of developing an inspection system based on Deep Learning technology to detect plagues and allow the robot to apply the most suitable chemical treatment. The organisation has also supplied the mobile platform’s robotic arm that manipulates the plants to be inspected always bearing in mind human safety requirements and changing environmental conditions.
Artificial Intelligence technologies have been developed to detect plagues affecting tomato plants and perform crop inspection by means of the robotic arm. The IPM (Integrated Pest Management) strategy, moreover, allows the system to decide which plants require protection in the greenhouse. Hardware has also been installed on the mobile platform to meet satellite navigation requirements and cloud software architectures have incorporated to plot trajectories and avoid obstacles.
This project has received funding from the European GNSS Agency under the European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 776324.