In 2011, a highly contagious plant bacteria was found in some 40,000 grape vines in the wine producing region of Bordeaux, France. Since then, infection of vineyards by flavescence doree has become a worldwide threat to vineyards. The only treatment for the disease that can kill young vines and shrink crop yield is applying insecticides and uprooting and destroying infected plants.
But detection of the disease is no easy matter. Luckily, a Pittsburgh company’s technology is working to remedy this. By using Bloomfield Robotics’ cameras, mounted on a tractor of all-terrain vehicle, one person can now examine 35,000 vines in a day.
Japanese multinational company Kubota Corp., which makes tractors among other things, and Bordeaux-based wine products company Oeneo Group have taken stakes in Bloomfield Robotics — raising the total invested in the Pittsburgh company to $16.2 million and buffing the city’s profile in robotics and machine learning.
Source: post-gazette.com