Sensors

AgZen, Corteva Team up on AI-Powered, Retrofit Sprayer Tech

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 16:10:42 GMT

AgZen announces an agreement with Corteva to further “explore the commercial potential” of AgZen’s AI-powered crop spraying optimization technology, RealCoverage.

The news comes on the heels of Corteva’s big announcement on Oct. 1 , detailing the crop protection multinational’s plan to split its crop protection and seeds businesses.

AgZen, a tech startup spun out of MIT, is making a name for itself by pioneering feedback optimization for spray applications — a new approach the company thinks has potential to improve farmer outcomes and reduce crop input costs.

(AgZen)

AgZen’s first product, RealCoverage, is a retrofit kit that can be bolted onto any sprayer to measure and optimize the number of drops of agrochemicals applied to crops. The system features a boom-mounted sensor that analyzes the coverage and quality of spray applications in real-time, displaying actionable data to a tablet mounted in the cab. Farmers can use the data to optimize the physical settings on spray rigs, both self-propelled and pull-behind, to increase coverage.

The startup says its system works by leveraging AI and cutting-edge computer vision, and customers have used RealCoverage to save 30% to 50% on input costs.

Farmer Feedback

(AgZen)

Northwest Indiana farmer Bryan Brost slapped a RealCoverage system onto his Hagie STS 16 high-clearance sprayer to use on his waxy corn and soybean crops. He says it has helped boost his spray program efficiency overall by reducing application rates while maintaining optimal coverage throughout his 12,000-acre operation.

“The payback came in the first year,” he tells Farm Journal via text message. “We have increased our acres [covered] per day with less hours on the machine, the operator and the nurse tanks supplying product [to the sprayer].”

Corey McIntosh set the technology loose across his 4,000 acre spread in Missouri Valley, Iowa. He is looking forward to using the data to improve his application efficiency across the board. He’s also letting his neighbors and local retailer in on the secret.

“I was getting a chem shuttle refilled at [the] co-op, these guys have always been complimentary of our weed control, I asked them: ‘What percentage of leaf surface area do you think you are covering with your sprayers?’ One of their best operators said he thought 50% coverage. The salesman next to him said it would definitely be more than 60%,” McIntosh says.

“They were shocked when I told them we were at 9% to 10%, but nobody has had ever had a way to quantify this before,” he adds. “We are really looking forward to making improvements.”

Since launching on the market in 2024, AgZen says it covered more than 970,000 commercial acres of application across the U.S. on row crops and specialty crops.

Your Next Read: Breakthrough Fungicide Delivers White Mold Disease Control in Key Crops

John Deere-Sentera Tie Up: Here’s What We Know So Far

Tue, 27 May 2025 15:40:37 GMT

John Deere has announced its acquisition of Minnesota-based aerial optics innovator Sentera. Although specific details are few and far between this early in the process, here’s what we know so far:

The two companies have a long history. John Deere was the first enterprise customer Sentera signed onto its system over a decade ago, and the two companies have had an API link in place between Sentera’s drone management software and John Deere’s Operations Center since 2016.
Financial details are not being disclosed. We do know the deal is not subject to any further regulatory or shareholder approvals.
In a similar fashion to the Blue River Technologies and Bear Flag Robotics acquisitions, Sentera will maintain its independence as a free-standing business unit. Once fully integrated into the Deere family, Sentera will operate under the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) framework. Sentera leadership will remain at its St. Paul, Minn., headquarters.
For the time being, no major changes are planned for either company as we head into the heart of the summer crop scouting and spraying season. The two companies anticipate having more details to share about the nuts and bolts of the acquisition this fall.
The two groups are a natural fit. Sentera is aggressively marketing its SmartScripts drone weed mapping program, and the technology is complimentary to John Deere’s Operations Center and its See & Spray and ExactApply application technologies. One driving force behind this deal, Farm Journal is told, is Deere’s motivation to integrate more real-time agronomic data into its Operations Center platform, and Sentera’s aerial data capture capabilities can help make that happen.

(John Deere)

A deal to lift both boats. John Deere has built up a deep bench of artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous technology expertise within ISG, and Sentera has a long track record of aerial sensing and camera payload innovation. Considering how many cameras and sensors are included from the factory on new John Deere machines and within its Precision Upgrades retrofit kits, there should be a healthy cross pollination of sensor and camera innovation between Urbandale, Iowa, (where ISG is based) and St. Paul, Minn.
Sentera can help make See & Spray even better. SmartScripts uses drone-based imaging to scan a field and build a weed pressure map which is then loaded onto the sprayer’s in-cab computer. Now the sprayer operator can see exactly where weeds are in the field and focus their spraying efforts there first. There’s also a logistical and planning aspect to SmartScripts: by knowing exactly how many weeds are present in the field, and even what type of weeds are there, an adept operator can have the right active ingredients premixed and the exact amount needed loaded into the tank or staged nearby in a tender truck to keep that sprayer running all day long.

“Farming is becoming a very sensor and data-centric business, and in our opinion, there isn’t anyone doing it at broad scale today better than John Deere,” says Eric Taipale, chief technology officer, Sentera. “The way we can bring these data-driven insights and improve grower outcomes — it’s just what we’ve always been about. It’s what John Deere is all about. There’s such a great mesh between the two cultures, the objectives and the mission of the two organizations.”

Joseph Liefer, global technology marketing lead at John Deere, adds, “We’re excited about how this complements our existing portfolio with See & Spray, and then not just that (product). Now a farmer with an individual nozzle-controlled sprayer from any manufacturer can also leverage this technology. A drone can fly their field, generate a weed map, turn it into a prescription in Operations Center and the machine can go execute the plan. From an ag retailer standpoint, that might have a mixed fleet, and this gives them more tools in the toolbox to do targeted application for growers and help them save on herbicide. We view this deal as complementary to our overall tech strategy.”

Your Next Read: MAHA Report’s Surprising Stance on Glyphosate, Atrazine Explained

Google’s Parent Company Alphabet Disperses Its Ag Tech Subsidiary

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 15:35:00 GMT

Announced earlier today, Mineral, Alphabet’s ag company, will wind down its operations.

“Mineral will no longer be an Alphabet company, and our technology will live on inside of leading agribusinesses where they can have maximum impact,” said Mineral CEO Elliott Grant in a blog post.

Mineral was founded in 2018 as part of X, the moonshot factory of Alphabet, and it had about 100 team members.

What did Mineral develop and build:

• an image database of more than 17 crops in every stage of growth in multiple environments.

• A four-wheeled semi-autonomous rover platform with multiple configurations and the core functionality as a data collection machine.

• in-field harvest analysis and post-harvest crop condition ratings for berry crops in partnership with Driscoll’s

• a geospatial analysis platform that has collected more than 450 million acres of farmland.

• Phenotyping databases and analysis

• And additional machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies.

Here’s a link to previous coverage about Mineral.

Driscoll’s has confirmed it will license the tech it partnered with Mineral to develop.

“Mineral had partnered closely with Driscoll’s - the world’s leading berry company - to develop AI tools to improve crop phenotyping, better forecast yields, optimize quality inspections, and reduce food waste in the supply chain. Some of the technologies we developed have now been transferred to Driscoll’s and will be integrated into their systems to help achieve their sustainability ambitions. Driscoll’s is the first agribusiness to receive Mineral technology, and is a first step towards ensuring that our breakthrough technologies achieve the greatest impact,” Grant said.

In closing he gave an analogy of the company’s name to the how it can be applied as a verb in the agricultural context:

“In soil science, mineralization is the process by which the nutrients in organic matter are released in a form that makes them available to the plants around them. I think this is a fitting metaphor for the new chapter of Mineral - as our technologies will be mobilized into the agriculture ecosystem, with the goal of making it more sustainable, and more resilient.”

Apeel Sciences unveils technology that reveals ripeness with a simple scan

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 16:22:50 GMT

Imagine if you could gauge ripeness of an avocado just by looking at it? Apeel Sciences’ latest innovation does just that.

The Goleta, Calif.-based company is taking food tech to the next level, launching an imaging and data service called RipeFinder. A simple scan of an avocado with the tool reveals whether it’s ready to be mashed into guacamole or needs another three days before it’s ready to be sliced for salad.

The food tech company known for its protective, plant-based peel that extends shelf life is finding new avenues to reduce food waste and create more efficient supply chains, from produce sorters to the grocery aisle. The RipeFinder imaging technology is currently only available for avocados, but Apeel is working on models for other produce including limes, mangos and mandarins, according to the release.

“Apeel started with a mission to prevent food waste across the supply chain with our plant-based protective coating,” James Rogers, chief executive officer at Apeel, said in the news release. “Our mission hasn’t changed, but we are evolving our offerings to further drive change in the food system. The expansion of our technology offerings will increase access to insights to create a smarter supply chain that maximizes the lifespan, quality and sustainability of fresh fruits and vegetables.”

Apeel’s new tool pairs imaging technology with machine learning, resulting in a scanner that can quickly tell you if an avocado is ready for consumption or if needs a few days before peak ripeness. According to the release, the sensor emits a beam that detects measured light. This light reading is converted into an accurate prediction of an avocado’s firmness and dry matter via machine learning. Firmness and dry matter are two factors that inform how long the fruit will be ready for consumption.

Practical uses across the produce supply chain

While ripeness is a key consideration for consumers shopping for avocados, the uses of Apeel’s new technology has implications across the supply chain.

Produce sorters at packing houses and distribution centers can use embedded imaging hardware that builds on RipeFinder’s artificial intelligence data. According to Apeel, these devices can scan avocados and quickly sort them into ripeness and dry matter categories to be routed to the right destination, based on their remaining shelf life. This inline sorting technology is being tested in a commercial packing house in Europe.

Related news: Stemilt seeks to ensure organic apple quality with Apeel

Distributors and grocery retailers can use a produce quality scanner to determine ripeness and dry matter on individual avocados with no spoilage. These scanners can capture data to inform receiving, stocking and merchandising decisions.

Lastly, consumers can use an avocado ripeness scanner to determine the exact ripeness window of their produce before purchasing. The scanner also features a consumer-friendly user interface.

Visit Apeel at booth #1143 at the International Fresh Produce Association Global Produce & Floral Show in Orlando from Oct. 27-29 to see the RipeFinder technology in use.

Three’s A Crowd: Hylio Secures FAA Drone Swarm, Night Flight Exemptions

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 19:41:29 GMT

Ag drone outfit Hylio (Houston, Texas) has received an unprecedented “all clear” from the FAA: an exemption allowing the company’s application drones to be “swarmed” or flown in concert with up to three drones controlled by a single operator, as well as allowing spray missions to be flown after sundown.

Why it Matters

Standard U.S. commercial drone regulations set forth under the FAA’s Part 107 certification limit operations to one pilot-in-charge per drone (plus a visual observer) and only flying between sunup and sundown. Chemical application drones are jointly regulated under Part 107 (pilot) as well as FAA 14 CFR Part 137 (service provider). A pesticide applicators license is also required.

Clearly, this development unlocks more efficient and scalable workflows for farm work (one of Hylio’s spray drones can cover up to 50 acres per hour), but it also has additional implications worth exploring.

“It’s precedent setting,” says Arthur Erickson, CEO and cofounder. “Essentially what the FAA does after this is…people can cite Hylio’s first exemption, this one, and be like, because Hylio can do that, we’re showing that we also have the same technical capabilities, therefore we should be able to do that.”

Technology has certainly evolved to the point of enabling autonomous swarms. Erickson says part of the buildup to that was a literal accounting for every single imaginable scenario (good or bad) under the sun.

“That’s redundant radar systems, that’s redundant GPS, that’s redundant IMUs in the flight controller, and redundant hardware to make sure that if anything goes wrong during a flight, there’s another system that can pick up and just make sure the drone does what it needs to do,” he explains. “It’s all about engineering that safety margin into the products and the machines themselves.”

By swarming three of Hylio’s AG-230 spray drones (which can also apply dry dispersible products and cover crop seeds), for example, a skilled operator can now cover 150 acres per hour, which Erickson says is comparable to a large pull-behind sprayer in some cases.

“It’s unlocking the ability for these drones to actually go toe to toe with traditional large equipment, which is what we’ve been waiting for in this industry,” he adds.

Advice for farmers

Judging from the winter farm trade show circuit , it seems clear there are more options available to farmers today when it comes to drone application than perhaps ever before.

Erickson advises interested farmers to do their homework and verify paperwork/licenses before committing big dollars to a drone application service provider.

“You also need to educate yourself on best practices for applying by drone, because what you want to do is make sure you don’t have someone who’s going out there with the drones and cutting corners,” he cautions. “And by that, I mean, most of these guys are making money based on acres per hour.

“Some of these pilots, and this isn’t just with drones, they’ll go out there and they’ll potentially do swaths that are too wide for what the effective swath is. What that can end up doing is, leaving weaker coverage at the edges of those swaths, right? Because there’s not enough overlap and they’re not getting enough droplets across the entire swath.”

What Could the Future Hold?

It’s a question that Erickson encounters often throughout his travels: just how big can application drones get? Can they ever replace conventional self-propelled ground rigs?

“Drones are going to get bigger to a certain point, but then they’re going to level out because beyond that point they become overly cumbersome and expensive,” he says. “You’ll start to see the same economic problems that you see with helicopters, which is they’re way too expensive, the insurance is way too high, they’re dangerous, they’re hard to maintain and repair, and hard to transport.”

Erickson sees the ceiling for capacity coming in around the 1,000-pounds/40-60 gallon per drone mark, eventually.

“Then you’re going to get multiples deployed in a field instead of just one giant, 200-gallon drone,” he says. “I think that’s more practical for manufacturers and the buyers and users themselves.”