Technology in the Stonefruit research orchards at Tatura
Researchers at Agriculture Victoria will be testing technologies to determine their application to support research, automation and on-farm capability.
Technologies that will be utilised in the research orchards include:
- LiDAR, vision sensors, artificial neural networks, thermal, and near-infrared and multi-sensor fusion,
- drainage flux sensors and displacement transducers to measure fruit and trunk growth,
- in-orchard RFID and NFC tree and fruit identification,
- IoT enabled irrigation control and feedback sensors,
- use of laser technology to write on fruit to enable research precision,
- precision GPS (horizontal and vertical to identify fruit location)
- the electronic nose and the DA-meter for fruit maturity and quality
- satellite, UAVs, on-ground vehicles (potentially robot), handheld and permanently mounted technologies.