Idaho's Northwest Nazarene University associate professor Duke Bulanon is developing two projects for the agriculture industry: one is the IdaBOT, which is a robot that can move on its own through vineyards and orchards. The other is a multi-spectral camera, which captures multiple color wavelengths that would aid in counting fruit blossoms to estimate crop yield.
The idea came to Bulanon when talking with orchard owner Mike Williamson about his peach crops in April, during the blossom season. Bulanon flew a drone over the orchard and took near-infrared pictures of the blossoms, which showed up more clearly on the image than if a normal camera would take it.
By counting blossoms rather than more ripe fruit, yield can be estimated earlier.
Bulanon hopes to make the camera small enough that it could be attached to a cellphone and work through an app. Bulanon and his team will find out how many pictures of blossoms and fruit need to be taken, and from what angles, to most accurately estimate yield.
Right now, Williamson and other workers count fruit on branches on certain trees and then multiply and average the count through the 24-acre orchard to estimate yield.
Bulanon hopes to receive a grant for nearly $90,500 from the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. Bulanon's project is one of 15 that are being considered to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promote specialty crop growth, according to a press release.
The money would cover the entire estimated cost of the project, according to Bulanon.
Regardless of whether he receives the funding, Bulanon knows how valuable the project can be to the agriculture industry. Williamson said technology like this could save him up to 20 percent returns from materials, labor and more accurate crop yield for market.
"If the fruits are mature, it may already be too late for farmers to sell, or they may have to sell at a lower price," Bulanon said.
