Autonomous flower thinning technology on its way
New technology that will enable apple growers to undertake variable time and rate spraying for flower thinning is now in the process of being commercialised.
The new system, known as the Apple Snapper, will enable apple growers to perform autonomous digital mapping of apple flower stages – from green tip through to petal fall – and tree canopy measurement.
Data is collected via a weatherproof unit comprising cameras and a GPS that can be mounted onto a standard frame tractor, side by side, or quad bike. As it is driven through an orchard, the unit captures and processes images and applies an algorithm to determine distribution of the flowering stage of each tree.
The data is uploaded in real time into a decision support tool website that growers log in to, allowing them to interact with the data about the orchard’s variability and growth stage. Growers are able to use the data to create prescription spray maps that can be loaded into a spray controller using a thumbdrive or USB and spray a block minutes after finishing a scan.
The prescription spray map enables variable rate autonomous spraying, specifically for primary chemical thinning, on a tree-by-tree basis, with ability to spray the tops and bottoms of trees at different rates.
The system develops prescription spray maps to enable variable rate autonomous spraying, specifically for primary chemical thinning, on a tree-by-tree basis.
Project lead, SwarmFarm Robotics Chief Product Officer, Will McCarthy, said the system would allow growers to make better decisions to improve both quality and yield, while reducing production costs including labour and chemical use.
“The project has really brought precision technology proven in broadacre farming systems into the horticulture industry,” Will said.
“Getting this technology into the hands of growers has been our driving force over the past three years, and we’re working with a commercialisation partner now to do this.
“After developing the Apple Snapper System and knowing the technology worked, the last year of the project was really focused on how we retrofit the technology onto an existing sprayer and prove its accuracy, so growers don’t have to invest in new machinery to use this technology.
SwarmFarm Robotics Chief Product Officer, Will McCarthy.
“We proved at the end of the project that we could use an off-the-shelf sprayer supply kit that we can attach to our sprayer, plug the prescription map into and output the chemical where we wanted it.
“We have also developed an industry know-how guide to give growers and spray manufacturers the technical details on how to configure any air-blast or tower sprayer to have variable timing and variable rate capabilities.”
Stay tuned for more updates on the product’s general availability!
The technology is the result of the three-year project, Developing agri-tech solutions for the Australian apple industry (AP16005), funded by Hort Innovation Apple and Pear Fund and led by SwarmFarm in partnership with UNSW and ADAMA.
Read more about the project in these articles:
- SwarmFarm and Green Atlas partner up to advance precision thinning
- Flowering stage detection shows ‘amazing accuracy’
- Automation and variable rate spray close to delivery
- New agri-tech project aims to help with thinning
