23 Mar UND partnership with Australian company gets ag sector buzzing
Bee Innovative, University sign pact to enhance autonomous capability in complex honey bee environments
Australian technology startup Bee Innovative and the University of North Dakota (UND) are partnering to unlock an entirely new market for agricultural drones in the United States.
A collaboration between the UAS Operations division at UND Aerospace and Australian-based ag technology company Bee Innovative focuses on the machine-vision-capabilities of Bee Innovative’s current drone platform, “BeeDar,” which tracks bee movements and pollination patterns in real-time and has delivered 20-percent increases in crop yields and returns for Australian farmers season to season.
A memorandum of understanding, signed recently on the UND campus in Grand Forks, N.D., outlines Bee Innovative’s extensive experience in tracking honeybees in real time for precision pollination in Australia with UND’s global leadership in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
Agriculture and honey production are an important part of North Dakota’s economy, of which UND, as the state’s flagship university, is a big driver through research and technology innovation.
“At UND, we are the epicenter of research and education in unmanned autonomous systems,” said Paul Snyder, director of the UAS Aviation Program at UND. “We are pleased to develop this strategic international relationship, leveraging our joint international expertise to solve real problems that directly benefit North Dakota and the entire international community.”
UND’s Aviation Program and its UAS programs are part of the world-renowned John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.
“Today’s drones are capable of autonomous flight over vast distances and have been proven to deliver greater efficiency and higher returns for farmers,” said Kate Lyall, chief technology officer and co-founder, Bee Innovative.
“Being able to extend those advantages to farmers working in more complex environments, such as under netting in orchards, is an exciting prospect for growers and technology vendors alike,” Lyall added.
Paul Snyder
The collaboration will focus on advancing the machine-vision-capability of Bee Innovative’s current drone platform, “BeeDar” which is used to track bee movements and pollination patterns in real-time by Australian farmers and has delivered 20 percent increases in crop yields and returns for farmers season to season.
This innovative partnership will allow BeeDar’s application to address current limitations in autonomous navigation that render drones incapable of recognizing and avoiding nets and other obstacles that can cause collisions and costly damage to equipment and crops.
“Thirty percent of the world’s food supply comes from pollination dependent crops, which are often grown in complex environments such as under netting or increasingly using indoor systems,” Lyall said.
“As we grapple with global challenges around food security and doing more with less, any innovation that delivers increased certainty, predictability and outputs for farmers is a welcome innovation.
“We’re excited to work with UND to leverage their experience in unmanned autonomous vehicles to enhance our current BeeDar capability and make this solution a reality for the local and global agriculture market.”
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About Bee Innovative:
Bee Innovative is an Australian owned and based Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) that provides real time bee identification, tracking and reporting services at scale to protect and unlock global agriculture production through early biosecurity hazard detection and by significantly increasing honey bee productivity. To learn more visit http://beeinnovative.com.au/
Contact:
Paul Snyder______________________________________
Assistant Chair | Director of UAS Program
Aviation Department | John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences
Office: 701.777.7813 | snyder@aero.UND.edu
Ryan Hall, Room 211 | 4251 University Ave Stop 9036
Grand Forks, ND 58202-9036
David L. Dodds
Editor, UND Today – UND’s Official News Source
Media Relations Coordinator
Division of Marketing & Communications
O: 701.777.5529 |M: 701.740.4834
David.dodds@UND.edu |UND.today@UND.edu
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