SBIR-STTR Award

AgIntel has been formed to expedite precision agriculture technologies being developed at one of the premier agricultural institutions in the world -the University of Florida. AgIntel has licensed two novel technologies from UF: Agroview and AgroSense. Agroview is a cloud-based technology that can automatically process analyze and visualize data collected from ground (e.g. smart sprayers) and aerial (e.g. unmanned aerial vehicles-UAVs satellites) sensing systems utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and data fusion techniques. Agroview as a digital twin of an agricultural field solves several problems that growers and other stakeholders face. AgroSense is a low-cost smart sensing system that can convert any farm vehicle/equipment to a smart data collection machine. The main goal of this project is to enhance precision nutrient management in tree crops(case study on citrus) by developing a Smart Nutrient approach that integrates AI UAV-based multispectral imaging Agroview and Agrosence. This novel technology will be able to "read" fertility maps for zone-based and variable rate chemical applications and at the same time adjust the applied rate within a specific zone (e.g. "high") if "at-risk" (aka. low leaf density) trees are detected. It will integrate AI-enhanced zone-based with AI-enhanced real-time sensing nutrient management. To the best of our knowledge we are the first to develop this novel technology for tree crops. The specific objectives of this project are to develop (i) Smart Nutrient: Integration of Agroview's fertility/ prescription map feature with AgroSense real-time sensing for AI-enhanced nutrient management; and (ii) Smart Fertilizer Spreader and Smart Sprayer.

AgIntel a spinoff company of the University of Florida (UF) has licensed two novel technologies from UF: Agroview and AgroSense. Agroview a digital twin of an agricultural field can deliver accurate zone-based fertility and prescription maps for precision nutrient applications. Agrosense can convert a traditional fertilizer applicator (sprayer or spreader) to a smart machine for precision nutrient application. With Agrosense the smart machine can vary the amount of the applied chemicals based on each tree's size and leaf density. In Phase I of this SBIR project we integrated these two novel AI technologies and developed a more accurate tree level based precision nutrient management named Smart Nutrient. This system integrates Agrosense's real-time data (e.g. tree canopy volume and leaf density) with the provided prescription map (from Agroview) to adjust the application rate for each individual tree. A data fusion algorithm was developed on Agrosense for this purpose (aka determining in real-time the tree canopy volume and leaf density and also identifying the desired application rate based on the management zone from the prescription map). The specific objectives of the SBIR Phase II project are to (i) Enhance and evaluate in commercial orchards the Agroview's fertility/prescription map and the Smart Nutrient feature (integration of Agroview and Agrosense) and (ii) Enhance field-evaluate and finalize the development of the Smart Sprayer and Smart Fertilizer Spreader. To the best of our knowledge we are the first to develop this novel technology for tree crops.