TerraSense, an agricultural robotics startup from Saudi Arabia, is moving from research to commercial deployment, with pilot projects planned over the next 12 months, first in China and then in Saudi Arabia and Italy, AgNavigator reports. It has also had interest from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
The company was founded about seven months ago by Khaled Megahed, Naif Alotaibi and Abdelrahman Fattouh through the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship programme at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Megahed says drones and satellites often spot crop stress only after significant damage, and fixed soil sensors need heavy investment to cover large areas, so the team chose the soil as the earliest indicator.
Its autonomous robots, a quadruped and a rover for different field conditions, combine in-soil sensors with AI-powered vision. They measure soil moisture, pH, conductivity and nutrient levels while analysing the crop with computer vision, and machine learning models turn the data into recommendations on irrigation, fertilisation and crop health. The company says growers can cut water and fertiliser use, with fertiliser savings potentially reaching 30 to 40 percent.
The technology was first developed with date palms in mind and is now being tested on corn, carrots and grapes. Megahed says it is meant to complement fixed sensors, satellites and drones rather than replace them, and the platform could one day communicate directly with agricultural drones.
Photo: MezzoMezzo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: AgNavigator
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