CropHopper is a jumping robot that operates autonomously. Jumping up to 10 m per point, (for 10 m x 10 m grid boxes) it stops and takes 12 m² high- resolution images. In the future it will also be able to apply spot sprays and it has already killed weeds with a rotary hoe.
show that its legs don’t damage crops when working later in the season.
Field trials in 2020 To officially quantify the benefits of the sys- tem, HaySeeBee is conducting a series of field trials with the CropHopper in the UK this sea- son. These are being overseen by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), which has helped explain weed and pest dynamics and provided fields from which to gather data. “One trial looked for early growth stage black- grass (alopecurus myosuroides). This com- pared the results from what was detected at 1m above the crop with a weed map on the CropHopper. “The crop walkers failed to spot a single black-grass plant, but the CropHopper’s sensor and software found high levels in the same 13 ha of field. At only two weeks it was almost impossible to see by eye, but the high-resolution camera, which is closer to the ground, found it under clods, stones and in holes,” says Fred.
Lawrence Couzens thinks CropHopper’s data is immediately actionable on a very wide
range of crop inputs, which is its real value – and this view is echoed by the NIAB. “Giving farms a significant yield boost, e.g. 20%, will not be achieved annually by only improving weed or pest control. But the cumulative ben-
People behind CropHopper
Born in London, Fred Miller has family roots in farming in the USA. He has an MEng in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial Col- lege London and wrote his thesis on aerody- namic flow control at the California Institute of Technology. He developed the CropHop- per idea in his own time while working, be- fore quitting his job in 2015. In 2016 he met Mirko Kovac, an expert in biologically-in- spired jumping and flying robots at Imperial College, who agreed to investigate the capa- bilities and benefits of a jumping mecha- nism, instead of a normal drone, once some funding was in place. Later they hired anoth- er jumping expert, Dr Rob Siddall.
efits of intensive scouting for all yield factors such as seed-rate, harvest timings, including weeds and pests, could have a very signifi- cant effect.” HayBeeSee expects that close monitoring of crops by mapping every two
Fred Miller is the CEO and founder of Hay- BeeSee.
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