AeroFarms and Nokia partner for artificial intelligence plant vision

Newark, N.J.-based AeroFarms and Nokia Bell Labs formed a multi-year partnership to identify and track plant interactions at advanced levels with artificial intelligence plant imaging systems.

As part of this partnership, AeroFarms, a Certified B Corporation and indoor vertical farming company, contributes its commercial growing expertise, environmental controls, agriculture-focused data platform and machine vision core foundation, according to a news release.

“We have created a cross-disciplinary understanding at an industrial scale to develop the latest imaging technology to help accelerate our ability to introduce new crops and ensure the highest quality for our commercial operations,” AeroFarms chief technology officer Roger Buelow said in the release.

Nokia Bell Labs, the industrial research arm of Nokia, contributes its autonomous drone control and orchestration systems, private wireless networks, robust image and sensor data pipelines, and artificial intelligence-enabled mobile sensor technologies.

The two companies have been collaborating since 2020 and have achieved a proof of concept for this integrated system and testing the technologies with AeroFarms’ current commercial crop varieties.

Together, the companies are now ready to scale this system to all of AeroFarms’ crops and future indoor vertical farms, including the next farms in Danville, Virginia and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

This partnership has created a system for everyday imaging that’s cost-effective at scale,

David Rosenberg, CEO at AeroFarms, said in the release.

“This level of detailed imaging and insights helps us be better farmers by monitoring our plant biology dynamically and allowing us to course correct as needed to ensure the highest level of quality all year round,” he said. “When I watch the drones autonomously imaging our plants, I am blown away by how this truly represents the power of harnessing leading-edge technologies and bringing brilliant problem solvers together from diverse groups to grow the best plants possible.”

 Nokia Bell Labs’ machine vision technology has enabled AeroFarms’ most precise data capture yet, down to the level of individual plants, using leaf size segmentation, quantification and pixel-based scanning to identify consistency and variation.

This ability enables insights about leaf size, stem length, coloration, curvature, spotting and tearing.

“The fundamental technologies of this partnership are our strength, and vertical farming is just the beginning,” Thierry Klein, Nokia’s vice president of integrated solutions and experiences research lab, said in the release. “With the AeroFarms platform, we are exploring the power of network-driven intelligence for industrial outcomes. These capabilities can expand into a multitude of indoor industrial operations, including logistics, warehousing, distribution hubs and manufacturing.”