Researchers across the country are using AI to develop smart innovations to improve agricultural practices, but they will only lead to positive advances if the end users adopt them.

UC Davis faculty Dr. Ali Moghimi, Dr. Stavros Vougioukas, and Dr, Yufang Jin organized a new workshop for ag industry professionals to learn about cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to transform our food systems.

When people in the industry think about AI and automation, they want to know how emerging technologies will impact their work. These technologies are designed to help them do their jobs and improve safety – but upskilling will be required.

What is the AgTech Workshop?

The AgTech Workshop, a 2-day training program at UC Davis, introduces industry professionals to advanced technologies — including drones, sensors, and AI — and the ongoing research developing new ways to optimize farming practices.

Attendees participate in hands-on demos and interact directly with top-in-their-field researchers, allowing them to ask questions and engage in nuanced conversations. They learn about rapidly changing tools to equip themselves to make better technology-related decisions and support the transition to a more tech-enabled workforce.

Research Topics and Activities

Featured speakers and topics are tailored to the group’s interests. At the first workshop, the schedule included a long list of researchers working on solution-oriented projects.

Day 1

• Remote Sensing Technology for Specialty Crops, Dr. Alireza Pourreza
• Technology for Precision Irrigation Management, Dr. Andre Daccache
• AI-Enabled Yield Estimation, Dr. Mason Earles
• Water Technologies for Various Cropping Systems, Dr. Isaya Kisekka
• Safety and health in the Era of Robotics and Emerging Agricultural Technologies, Dr. Farzaneh Khorsandi
• Multi-scale Remote Sensing for Crop Monitoring and Yield Prediction, Dr. Yufang Jin

Day 2

• Robotics & Automation, Dr. Stavros Vougioukas
• Hands-on Activities and Demo, Dr. Stavros Vougioukas
• Drone Technology, Dr. Ali Moghimi
• Hands-on Activities and DFemo, Dr. Ali Moghimi

A Farm Robotics Demonstration

As one of the highlights of the workshop, Dr. Vougioukas’ postdoc assistants, Pen Wei and Juan Fernando Villacres, brought a new farm robot to the UC Davis Vineyard for a demonstration.

The Vougioukas Lab is developing robot harvest-aid systems to assist pickers in transporting fruit and to improve harvesting efficiency. They have built different robots for strawberry and table grape harvesting.

The wheeled robot demonstrated during the workshop is used for table grapes. The system includes the transport robot, “Grapebot," and the instrumented picking cart, “Carrito," working together to transport harvested fruit from the pickers to the collection station. This eliminates the need for pickers to walk back and forth in the field, saving their time for harvesting, and potentially reducing injury from carrying awkward loads. The “FRAIL-bot," designed for strawberry harvesting, works with its own Carrito to facilitate harvesting.

Each picker keeps a Carrito with them during harvesting. It holds one tray of fruit (strawberries or table grapes) and weighs the fruit in the tray as it is picked. A highly accurate GPS unit identifies its location and a communication module helps it talk with the transport robots. By knowing the rate at which the tray is being filled and knowing its location in real-time, a novel prediction algorithm predicts when and where the tray will be full and sends a transport robot to arrive just in time. The picker will place their full tray on the transport robot and take an empty tray from it.

Each transport robot is equipped with a highly accurate GPS and an onboard computer that can serve multiple pickers in the field. It runs a smart scheduling algorithm to optimize task allocation and avoid collisions, helping it to operate quickly and safely.

The lab’s studies indicate that the FRAIL-bot saves 25% of a strawberry-picker’s time, which could lead to greater pay for pickers, who are often paid by piece rate.

The Carritos can be used with or without the transport robot to create a precise yield map since both the location and weight of the fruit are known. Yield maps are very useful to growers and researchers as they can show which parts of the field are producing a high volume and which are not. Adjusting variables such as irrigation rates, fertilizers, or soil conditioners can be tested to improve crop yield.

New technologies like the Grapebot and FRAIL-bot offer a glimpse into the future of farming. These innovations make tasks easier for workers and help farmers collect more data about their crops, leading to better decision-making.

What’s Next?

The AgTech Workshop is a clear step toward a future where technology and farming work hand in hand. The next workshop will be scheduled in 2025 and will be announced on the AIFS website.

By learning about drones, sensors, AI, and the latest innovations to apply them in the field, industry professionals are better prepared to make informed decisions that improve their work and the quality of our food. When these new technologies are widely adopted, they promise a safer work environment and a more productive, sustainable agricultural landscape.