Growing Knowledge
Moving towards
automation
The beginnings of superior inventory management
and precision agriculture for nursery field crops
BRIAN MOORE
Growers have told researchers that they need an “on the go” device that measures tree circumference
more efficiently than doing it by hand. The researchers came up with this vehicle-mounted caliper
measurement device, and early results are promising.
Increasing production costs and
declining market prices are serious challenges for nursery growers, just as they
are for specialty crop growers in general.
Economic returns within nurseries are limited not only due to input
cost pressure, such as fuel for heating
greenhouses, but also from labor costs
and the availability of skilled workers.
Additionally, consumers are increasingly
demanding safe, affordable, traceable,
and high quality products. The market
is also demanding that suppliers demonstrate how they are minimizing their
environmental impact, which can be a
key challenge for some growers.
A multi-institutional team recently
began a four-year effort to develop a
comprehensive automation strategy for
ornamental and fruit tree production.
The project, called “Comprehensive
Automation for Specialty Crops” (CASC),
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An ongoing series provided by
Oregon State University
in partnership with OAN
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MOVING TOWARDS AUTOMATION
BRIAN MOORE
Jackson Kowalski measures tree trunk diameter by hand, for comparison to the measurements taken
by the automated caliper measurement device researchers have developed. Kowalski is an intern with
Oregon State University and the North Willamette Research and Extension Center.
is a matching grant program funded
by the USDA Specialty Crops Research
Initiative. It aims to address labor availability concerns and improve production efficiency.
The team’s approach is based on
a triad that spans the entire production
spectrum, from propagation to harvest:
• Information, mobility, and
manipulation technologies, including reconfigurable mobility, accurate
positioning, augmented fruit harvesting, and information management and
decision-making.
• Plant science technologies,
including monitoring of insect populations, automated caliper measurement,
autonomous crop load scouting, and
detection of plant stress and disease.
• Socio-economic analyses, outreach/extension, and commercialization.
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Caliper and counting device
Karen Lewis at Washington State
University surveyed ornamental and
fruit tree nurseries in Oregon and
Washington. In both surveys, growers
indicated that they need an “on-the-go”
multifunctional caliper measuring device.
Nursery sales and inventory staff
place significant benefit on having accurate inventory throughout the season
versus waiting up to six months for the
crop to be graded.
Currently, measuring caliper (and
counting trees) is a costly process in
which data are neither spatially nor
temporally recorded; instead the information is hand-logged, revealing little
or no information about management
practices and current/future inventory.
A fast and low-cost method to
count trees, record geospatial location,
and measure caliper in tree cropping
systems could increase production efficiency, provide models of plant growth
and assist in precision management.
In 2009 Jim Owen and Heather
Stoven at Oregon State University began
field validation (recording video footage) at Bailey Nurseries Inc. at multiple
speeds on staked shade trees of varying
caliper, spacing and sun exposure.
Based on these findings, Carnegie
Mellon University (CMU) designed and
built a prototype automatic caliper estimation device. The device projects two
parallel planes of laser light at trees and
observes with a camera how much the
trees bend the light. Image processing
algorithms are then used to calculate
caliper to millimeter accuracy.
This low-cost, rugged device was
conceived by Sanjiv Singh and his CMU
colleagues based on previous experience with caliper measurement tools for
the nursery industry under funding from
the American Nursery and Lanscape
Association (2001-2002).
As a result of that earlier work, a
hand-held version has been commercialized under the brand TallyMaster,
and a proof of concept system was created that could count trees and measure
tree diameter “on the fly” as it moved
through rows of trees.
Equipment engineers are improving on this prior research by creating
a new device that can be either towed
or integrated into existing equipment to
track inventory and growth spatially and
temporally. For initial laboratory testing,
Wenfan Shi, senior research programmer, used samples of trees and stakes
to evaluate and calibrate the device.
With some modifications in basic
components and housing, the device
was tested in July 2009 at two fruit tree
nurseries in Washington and J Frank
Schmidt & Son Co. in Oregon. Initial
field tests revealed possible obstacles
from crop branches, ground vegetation,
stakes and trees in the background. The
field test data were analyzed at CMU
and compared to control figures which
were obtained by manually measuring
the trees’ diameter with a conventional
digital caliper. For Quercus and Malus
the measurement standard errors were
plus or minus 3 millimeters.
To overcome the obstacles from
the field testing in 2009, a wheel-mount
has been constructed that will allow the
caliper or counter device to maintain a
constant height.
This wheel-mount can also be
adapted to nursery specific equipment,
allowing it to be used while other field
tasks are performed.
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MOVING TOWARDS AUTOMATION
In addition, the second version of
the caliper device has an increased field
of view and depth of view. It has incorporated a visible laser to assist the user
with maintaining the optimal height and
distance from the trees being measured.
A new prototype tree counter was
designed, built and is currently undergoing testing in Adams County Nursery
in Pennsylvania.
The device was able to remain
within 4 percent accuracy (plus or
minus 3 trees for 75 trees). After further
laboratory testing, the device will be
shipped to Oregon and Washington for
field testing using the newly assembled
wheel mount.
The team will continue to develop
and deploy the second version of
the tree counter and caliper measurement device, while quantifying
the performance of the device and
mounting system in fields in Oregon
(shade trees) and Washington (fruit
trees). They continue to work with
regional stakeholders and industry
equipment and technology suppliers/
fabricators to find additional solutions
to overcome field conditions that may
decrease device accuracy.
In the future, these devices can be
used as instruments of precision agriculture for perennial cropping systems,
yielding useful geospatial information
over time. This information, in turn, can
be used to make day-to-day management decisions, increasing efficiency
and reducing costs
Economic impact
The CASC project is developing a
wide range of technologies to address
critical needs in both the tree fruit and
nursery production systems.
This effort is a collaboration of
researchers and growers to develop
prototype devices that solve problems
and improve production efficiency in
the industry. However, it goes a step
further than traditional research projects.
The intent of the USDA Specialty
Crop Research grant funds was not
to just develop new technologies and
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The research team working on this
project includes Jim Owen, Heather
Stoven, Clark Seavert and James
Julian of Oregon State University;
Sanjiv Singh, Wenfan Shi and
Marcel Bergman of Carnegie Mellon
University; Karen Lewis of Washington
State University; and industry Partners
J Frank Schmidt and Son, Co., Bailey
Nursery Inc.,and Remote Control
Systems, Inc. For more information,
log on to http://www.cascrop.com/
or contact the Project Leader, Sanjiv
Singh ([email protected], 412-2686577). This work is supported in part
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
under the Specialty Crop Research
Initiative, award number 2008-5118004876 and the Oregon Department
of Agriculture.
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devices, but to also to determine what
it would take to get that device out of
the lab and into the hands of growers.
Therefore, work is being done to determine the economic value of the new
technologies and develop a plan for a
commercial version.
This plan starts with an economic
model to determine the market value of
the problem to be solved: a cost/benefit
assessment. Then, a working prototype
is developed and used as the basis
for a production and marketing cost
assessment.
The target customers are identified
and interviewed to assess the potential
value and benefit of the product’s features. This step is important because
it provides early feedback on how the
device is viewed by the growers and
gives insight to potential usage restrictions or limitations.
At this point, a decision is made on
how to bring the technology to market.
It can be done either though licensing to an existing equipment supplier,
or spinning out the technology into its
own enterprise. This new approach will
result in focusing scarce resources onto
projects that will truly benefit specialty
crop growers and specifically Oregon’s
nursery industry.
Your contribution
today helps
prepare the nursery
industry leaders of
OREGON
tomorrow.
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FOUNDATION
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Contact the Oregon Association
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or 800.342.6401
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503-932-8006
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