University's new technology blossoming in agriculture

Williamson is referring to two projects Bulanon is developing at NNU. One is the IdaBOT, which is a robot that can move on its own through vineyards and orchards. The other is a multi-spectral camera, which captures multiple color wavelengths that would aid in counting fruit blossoms to estimate crop yield. The idea came to Bulanon when talking with Williamson in April during the blossom season. Bulanon flew a drone over the orchard and took near-infrared pictures of the blossoms, which showed up more clearly on the image than if a normal camera would take it. By counting blossoms rather than more ripe fruit, yield can be estimated earlier.Bulanon hopes to make the camera small enough that it could be attached to a cellphone and work through an app. Bulanon and his team will find out how many pictures of blossoms and fruit need to be taken, and from what angles, to most accurately estimate yield. Right now, Williamson and other workers count fruit on branches on certain trees and then multiply and average the count through the 24-acre orchard to estimate yield.