Environment and Smart Farming
How images and data are changing the agri-food sector
Being able to control processes more easily and design them more efficiently - these requirements also play an important role for agriculture and the food industry. Factors such as increasing demand from consumers, high standards regarding sustainability and security of supply, as well as the need to produce efficiently, come into direct conflict. Connected devices and automation are therefore becoming more and more prevalent in these sectors, too. Cameras play an important role here. They support from the optimal application of fertilizers to the visual monitoring of products and growth phases to the processing of food.
A key technology is artificial intelligence. Organic products with different shapes and colors are difficult to describe in the corset of standardized algorithms with which industrial cameras usually work. Anyone who wants to realize applications in which objects with a wide variety of characteristics - such as vegetables or fruit - are to be reliably recognized, cannot afford to ignore image processing with artificial intelligence. Intelligent systems for collecting and analyzing information are also a valuable tool when it comes to detecting conditions, making decisions and triggering follow-up processes. Here you can see which applications and possibilities are available.
Determining and checking the contents of nut packages
If you wish to check the ratio of nuts in quality assurance after packing, you can replace manual evaluation processes with an IDS NXT camera. Image processing takes place directly on the camera using a pre-trained neural network that automatically determines the number and ratio. In addition, the camera can perform other visual checks, such as whether the nuts are damaged or larger/smaller than usual.
Ensure sustainable aquaculture
In aquaculture, fish farms lose on average 40% of potential revenues because fish are not kept under optimal farming conditions. An intelligent camera system, combined with chemical-physical sensors, monitors animal welfare and ensures better water quality and correct feed management.
Detect plant condition and harvest stage
Intelligent cameras recognize the growth stage and height of vegetables. This information can be used, for example, to identify vegetable types, determine the optimal harvest time and precisely adjust the position of cutting blades. Artificial intelligence can also help to identify damaged spots so that the affected products are sorted out and not processed further.
Identifying weeds in outdoor plantings
Cameras mounted on the outriggers of a tractor can be used to inspect the soil and check whether weeds are found in the planting corridor. Once weeds are detected, the tractor can spray the soil with a chemical fertilizer to remove them and ensure unhindered plant growth. Artificial intelligence identifies the weeds with high speed and reliability.
Camera-supported inspection of caps
Detecting cracks and damage on plastic caps in dozens of colors and shades running at high speed on a production line is a major challenge in quality control. Read in our application report "Cap closed!" how this can be successfully solved with image processing technology, an industrial camera from IDS and artificial intelligence.
Minimize health risks associated with seafood
Ingestion of inadequately prepared seafood may contain parasites that can be dangerous to humans. In the European Union, the rules for the pre-treatment of raw fish are therefore very strict. Most of them are aimed at checking the viability of anisocides in fishery products. Learn more about the role of camera technology in monitoring systems for laboratories in the veterinary and food sector in the article "Search for skilled survivors".
Robot solution for automating the lettuce harvest
Within the project, existing leek harvesting machinery is adapted to lift the lettuce clear from the ground and grip it in between pinch belts. The lettuce’s outer, or ‘wrapper’, leaves will be mechanically removed to expose the stem. Machine vision and artificial intelligence are then used to identify a precise cut point on the stem to to neatly separate the head of lettuce.
Intelligent robot with uEye+ industrial camera eliminates the need for herbicides
The Rowesys student project was launched in summer 2019 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich with the aim of developing a robot for more sustainable agriculture without the excessive use of herbicides. On the underside of the robot is a uEye+ industrial camera with GigE Vision Interface from IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH.
Our cameras for your applications
This is just a small excerpt of the many possibilities that image processing offers today. Our versatile 2D uEye industrial cameras with their almost innumerable variants can be integrated into the most diverse applications. With IDS NXT, we also offer you compact, smart embedded vision cameras that can execute artificial intelligence themselves. Thanks to the all-in-one AI solution IDS NXT ocean, users do not need any expertise in deep learning, image processing or programming to set up and use an intelligent camera for their applications. And with the Ensenso camera families, we offer flexible and powerful 3D cameras that help robots see and whose 3D image information is indispensable for many automation tasks. Contact our team - we will be happy to help you with your applications!
