Robot Agronomist to Monitor Banana Health in Russia
The neural network used in the project was trained on images of healthy and diseased plants.
Russian school students have developed the country’s first robotic assistant for a banana greenhouse. The device was created at the request of the Akademiya razvitiya subtropicheskogo selskogo khozyaystva (Academy for the Development of Subtropical Agriculture).
The robot weighs less than one kilogram and replaces the work of two agronomists. That is the number of specialists normally required to monitor plant health in a greenhouse covering about 600 square meters.
The machine independently inspects plants and detects those infected by pests. The students trained the neural network themselves using photographs of healthy and diseased banana palms. Images of unhealthy plants are automatically sent to a smartphone so treatment can begin as quickly as possible.
Simpler and More Efficient
The prototype device is currently being tested in an experimental greenhouse in the Adler district of Sochi for further improvement. The condition of hundreds of exotic plants in the greenhouse is also monitored by 25 cameras.
In the future, banana production in Sochi is expected to expand, with industrial greenhouses covering about 25 hectares. Developments such as the robotic agronomist could help make the cultivation of exotic plants simpler and more efficient.
Earlier reports noted that researchers at Tyumen State University created an intelligent system for monitoring plant health in greenhouse farms.
