Pest and disease detection capability to be added to robotic platform
Publication date: Tue 13 Jun 2023 By Horti Daily Original Article
Arugga AI Farming, a start-up developing robotic solutions for greenhouse farming, has signed a commercial collaboration agreement with ViewNetic. The partnership between the fellow Israel-based start-ups will bring ViewNetic’s advanced pest, beneficials, and disease detection solutions to the global high-tech greenhouse market.
According to Iddo Geltner, CEO of Arugga: “Early pest and disease detection are critical for every grower. Large greenhouse operations today will typically rely on IPM scouters sampling just a few plants out of thousands to make critical decisions for/affecting the entire crop and greenhouse. Imagine if you could get high-resolution visibility on all plants - this would be a real game-changer!”
ViewNetic uses an advanced camera vision-based solution to detect pests, beneficials, and diseases on greenhouse crops. This unique product focuses on the bottom of the leaf, where most pests live.
Ofer Sandelson, the CEO of ViewNetic, states that: “We are pleased to collaborate with Arugga, a company that has already made inroads in the greenhouse market thanks to its robotic pollination solution. We are very much encouraged by trials that we have jointly conducted in both Israel and at the Agrifutura greenhouse in Finland. Their success has paved the way for our first commercial integration with other product units to be launched into the market.”
As part of one trial with Arugga in Israel, the ViewNetic system was able to detect spider mites and persimilis within a commercial greenhouse. Both pests and natural predators were detected under the leaves in their various life cycle stages (eggs, juvenile, adult, and dead), enabling their specific location to be mapped.
Geltner continues: “Later this year, our customers using our Polly robot will be able to start using the ViewNetic solution while our robot pollinates. The launch of our joint solution with ViewNetic will also coincide with the launch of our second module - robotic plant-lowering - allowing customers who use either our pollination robot or plant-lowering robot to enjoy unique pest and disease detection capabilities. Improving yields and solving labor shortages are top goals driving our work every day. With the ViewNetic solution, we can provide a much clearer assessment of plant health in greenhouses to ultimately improve the bottom line for growers”.
For more information:
Arugga AI Farming
info@arugga.com
www.arugga.com
