Scouting a cornfield is a job that never really ends. Crop development, plant populations, and disease pressure can all change throughout the growing season. Autonomous technology could provide farmers with another set of eyes that keeps watching even when they are not in the field.
Solinftec is developing its SOLIX autonomous robot to do more than target weeds. As the solar-powered machine moves through a field, it can also continuously collect information about the crop.
Solinftec North America COO Guilherme Guiné said the system started by monitoring information such as crop growth stage, population, skips, and doubles. Its Alice AI can then identify areas of a field where plants are developing differently and direct a farmer’s attention to those locations.
Solinftec also designed SOLIX as a platform that can accommodate additional sensors, allowing the amount and types of information collected by the robot to expand.
One potential application has particular relevance for Iowa corn growers. Solinftec has been working with Purdue University on using the technology to detect tar spot earlier in the development of the disease.
The idea is to provide farmers with information from their own fields as they make disease-management decisions. Rather than relying only on periodic scouting or waiting until symptoms become obvious, a machine already traveling through the crop could continually look for potential trouble.
Keeping SOLIX operating with limited human involvement also requires automating some of the routine work normally associated with spraying. Solinftec has developed a refill station that the robot can return to when it begins running low on product.
The refill station is also solar-powered and monitors its own telemetry, including product levels. It can continuously agitate products when necessary, while the farmer’s primary responsibility is keeping the station supplied.
For Solinftec, that continuous presence in the field is what expands the potential role of autonomous equipment. The same machine targeting weeds can also gather crop information and potentially alert farmers to developing problems.
For Iowa growers facing diseases such as tar spot, that could make autonomous technology another set of eyes keeping watch over the crop throughout the season.
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