Speaker: Professor Tony Pridmore 

Title: Feeding the World with Computers: Robot vision can improve crops

Abstract: Production of sufficient healthy food to support a rapidly growing population is a recognised global challenge. At a time of increasing demand, the amount of land available for farming is reducing, while climate change and resource depletion make the growing environment more hostile. New crop varieties are urgently required that are both more productive and more resistant to drought and nutrient shortages. Crop scientists and breeders have powerful tools with which to address this need; techniques for the study and manipulation of plant genetics are well-developed. If the most is to be made of these methods, however, the data they provide must be combined with detailed measurements of plant structure and function. The plant genome must be related to its phenome.

Computer vision, robotic and artificial intelligence tools are now being brought to bear, with the goal of providing objective, quantitative data on large numbers of plants with minimum human intervention. This lecture will give examples of state of the art plant phenotyping tools based upon computer vision technologies, and discuss the national and international initiatives aiming to produce an integrated research infrastructure that will help feed the world through computer science.