AI counts apples and pests – this is how fruit growing 2.0 works | Regional
Hamburg- Groundbreaking Innovation in apple cultivation!
The fruit digitization project SAMSON is intended to revolutionize apple cultivation in the Altes Land region. Fewer pesticides, less water waste – in five years, the Fruit growing go digital.
The goals: more environmental Protection and less resource consumption. The SAMSON project (“Smart automation systems and services for fruit cultivation on the Lower Elbe”) is currently collecting data on fruit farms in the Old CountryA tractor with a sensor box and a camera arm in front of the driver's cab is currently driving through the rows of apple trees at the Ostbau test ring in Jork.
A tractor with the sensor box
The box takes photos and evaluates them, collecting data on blossoms, pests and the number of apples on the trees. David Berschauer is a computer scientist at the Fraunhofer IFAM in Stade and helped develop the box, which contains the electronics for the connected camera arm. He later uses his tablet to evaluate what the box has measured on the tractor.
Conceptual representation of the fruit growing business of the future in the Altes Land. Digital networking, autonomous machines and AI-based evaluation algorithms are being researched on the experimental field in the SAMSON project
The researchers are currently working on image recognition using Artificial IntelligenceIf the development is successful, “we will be able to recognize and count every apple on the tree as we drive past,” says mechatronics engineer Jiahua Wei from the Technical University of Harburg to NDR. Blossoms and pests could also be recognized.
Apple trees make up more than 80 percent of the fruit trees in the Altes Land
According to NDR, project manager Benjamin Schulze explained: “Often, for example, only a small area is infested with pests, but pesticides are distributed everywhere. Much more is used than is actually needed.”
Whether it is pesticides, antifreeze, water, all of this costs money and energy. “For the environment and the Climate protection Of course, it is also important to use as few resources as possible and not to waste anything,” Schulze continued.
Benjamin Schulze from Fraunhofer IFAM Stade is project manager of SAMSON
Demand among fruit growers is high. Starting this summer, farmers will be able to borrow a prototype sensor box to test it.
The SAMSON project is funded until December 2025 and is supported with 2.8 million euros by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. A total of around 50 people from Fraunhofer IFAM Stade, the HAW Hamburgthe University 21 from Buxtehude (Lower Saxony) and the TU Harburg.