Public Funding for Cordon Technologies Ltd

The Lumina Spray project will develop an AI enabled real-time canopy assessment for precision pesticide spraying in vineyards. Viticulture is the UK's fastest growing agricultural sector: the UK currently produces ~12 million bottles of wine per year with the sector anticipated to double over the next ten years. A major challenge for growers is pathogenic fungal disease management, e.g. Downy/Powdery mildew, requiring crops to be sprayed up to 40 times per growing season, a major operational focus and resource intensive activity. Rising energy costs and increasing labour shortages have resulted in a drastic increase in operational costs by up to 250% for vineyard owners. In addition, current practises are inefficient and non-targeted with excess pesticides having detrimental environmental impact and exposing vineyard workers to concerning health implications. Precision spraying has the potential to vastly reduce economic and environmental impacts of pesticide spraying, increasing productivity in a key sector. However, in order to achieve precision, advances need to be made in both the detection of the spray target, and the application methods. The challenge in accurate detection is an ideal candidate for artificial intelligence. The proposed project explores the potential of using reinforcement learning to optimise how a sprayer must react based on the environmental conditions which are stochastic in nature. The solution to this problem lies in making the sprayer aware of its surrounding conditions and predicting what it should be doing to be in an optimised state to achieve up to 85% reduction in pesticide usage. Cordon is a UK-based agri-tech SME specialised in enabling automation and precision in vineyards. The project will enable Cordon's product to meet market needs more rapidly, and help move the UK agricultural sector towards a net zero future.