Development and evaluation of a made-in-Manitoba data rover for the rapid collection of ground-level phenotypic data

Global food security is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Developing new farming practices and technologies that take advantage of large amounts of data collected from a myriad of different sensors offers our best bet for a greener future, with a stable supply of nutritious food for everyone. A move toward digital agriculture, as it is called, is expected to bring critical innovations such as automated methods of plant care and inspection. Such capabilities will increase crop yields and expedite breeding programs, while reducing human effort, costs, and chemical inputs (e.g., fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide). The proposed project will help bring out these innovations by developing a data rover that will collect plant level images and environmental data in test plots. This will provide much greater information about plant growth, resilience, and yield (i.e. phenotypic data) than can presently be collected by hand, allowing plant breeders to make better decisions and develop crops with improved characteristics (e.g. drought resistant) more quickly.

Faculty Supervisor:

Christopher Bidinosti;Christopher Henry

Student:

Partner:

Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of Winnipeg

Program: