New Tool Helps Growers Enhance IPM and Biologicals Treatments in the Greenhouse

Posted by Brian Sparks|June 14, 2020

Ecoation Inc., a plant- and grower-centric platform that merges deep biology, automation, sensing, artificial intelligence (AI), intelligence augmentation, and robotics, has filed a patent on a new technology that enables the company to provide real-time IPM risk projections and predict biocontrol agents’ distribution in greenhouses.

In collaboration with epidemiologists at the University of British Columbia who conduct research on COVID-19, the Ecoation Data Science and AI team developed a risk projection model that uses epidemiological concepts to provide a full coverage map of pest and disease risks in the greenhouse on a daily basis. The risk model complements human scouting, fills in the gaps, and provides growers the ability to map IPM issues in the entire greenhouse more frequently than human scouting routine. It also projects biological control agents’ population dynamic and provides actionable intelligence to growers so they can conduct more targeted treatments. Growers receive a daily summary report with the main IPM issues, rows to check, images of plants to pay attention to, and an updated version of their maps.

The “Live Alerts” feature operates based on technology that was jointly developed by COVID researchers and Ecoation data scientists. While the operator drives down the row with a geo-aware OKO scouting machine, the algorithm provides the scout with an on-location real time alert that includes the risk level for pests or diseases in his or her immediate vicinity.

On May 1, Ecoation also released the risk projection algorithm for Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus. The live alerts enhance the performance of human scouts in the greenhouse by drawing their attention to potential emerging problems. Back in the growers’ office or anywhere in the world where you can connect to the internet, a bird’s eye view of the interactive map of pests, diseases, and beneficial insects can provide a projection of where hotspots may be developing. The greenhouse management portal allows growers, managers, and consultants to react to this intelligence and assign location specific tasks that will be automatically communicated with the crew on the ground via their OKO machines.

Learn more here.