The Greentech Innovation Award jury had 47 entries to choose from this year. The big trend? All devices are getting smarter, concludes jury chairperson Egon Janssen (TNO). “Artificial intelligence can help control pests and diseases.”
This year, artificial intelligence (AI) has made a breakthrough reaching the general public. More and more people are turning to ChatGPT for help. Floriculture faces several major challenges, for which AI can provide solutions too. One such challenge is reducing pests and diseases, since chemical pesticides will be all but banned in the near future. A robot could use visual technology to check all plants for pests and diseases daily, thus nipping incipient pests in the bud. “A grower could never do that himself in that way,” says Egon Janssen, Business Developer at TNO and chair of the Greentech Innovation Awards jury. “Scouting is now moving from sampling to total control,” a feat for which scouting robot ViewNetic (deployed in fruiting vegetables) won the Concept Award.
While automatic crop scouting has been available for some time, the innovation lies in speed and accuracy: the camera can now analyse thousands of images per second, and the software is getting better at recognising pests.
