Are you a farmer or farmer? This robot can help you optimize your crops.

Google X researchers have developed an amazing vehicle capable of collecting and analyzing multiple data to best support farmers. This robot is designed to help build a more sustainable, resilient and productive food system, when we will soon be able to feed several billion more people.

In order to meet the food needs of a world population in full explosion, it is necessary to optimize the harvests, for a yield that will become increasingly important. One of the tools to achieve this could be a robot like Mineral, developed by X (ex-Google X Lab).

To better understand the water or nutrient needs of soils, the aim is to capture as much data as possible in real time. From then on, farmers can trade directly on the basis of the information collected by the robot.

For example, by crisscrossing the fields, Mineral can count the number of strawberries, peas, berries or lettuces, from sprout to harvest, in its path and thus alter future production. It can also detect the presence of a bacterium or at least its undesirable effects on a particular field, so that the farmer can react as quickly as possible and the problem does not spread further. The overall goal is also to optimize water consumption.

The ambition of the team working on Mineral today is to create new tools, hardware and software to help farmers deal with the complexities of food production. This prototype has already analyzed strawberry fields in California and soybean fields in Illinois to find new ways to produce more and better.

By combining the images collected by the robot with other data (soil composition, weather conditions, etc.), the aim is to use machine learning to predict over time how plants will grow and interact with their environment.

Also read (and listen) to the interview with the general manager of Google France, Sébastien Missoffe, held in the context of Viva Tech 2022.

(ETX Daily Up)

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