Latest / Best of Business / Dr Kioumars Ghamkhar: AgResearch expert on the new Map and Zap technology that kills weeds with AI

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Dr Kioumars Ghamkhar: AgResearch expert on the new Map and Zap technology that kills weeds with AI · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks EDB. Follow
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  Speaker 2: News Talks Edbase. So soon, growers might be harnessing the
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  Speaker 2: power of an artificial intelligence to tackle weeds in their crops.
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  Speaker 2: A prototype called MAP and ZAP is currently being trialed.
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  Speaker 2: It is an AI trained laser weed killing system. How
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  Speaker 2: good does that sound. The MAP and ZAP has been
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  Speaker 2: designed by a group of AGG research scientists and engineers
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  Speaker 2: led by doctor Kmar's Gemka and he's with me now, good.
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  Speaker 3: Morning, Good morning, Francisco.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me, thank you for being with us. Tell me
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  Speaker 2: about this technology, the MAP and ZAP. How does it work?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's MAPANZAP is a system that brings together artificial
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  Speaker 3: intelligence AI in a smart way, analyzing images of weeds
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  Speaker 3: and crops in the field and identifying weeds from crops
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  Speaker 3: and from one another at species level, and then leading
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  Speaker 3: the laser system laser system to target those and kill
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  Speaker 3: them with high accuracy.
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  Speaker 2: How accurate is that?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very accurate. At the moment. The kill rate
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  Speaker 3: is that ninety percent. Of course, you still miss a
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  Speaker 3: small amount, but that's the same with chemicals.
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  Speaker 2: You've been trialing at Clardy Bay Wines in its vineyards.
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  Speaker 2: How's the trial going.
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  Speaker 3: All the trials are going great and we've been able.
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  Speaker 3: I mean they've been great to allow us to use
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  Speaker 3: their fields to make the system smarter by identifying more
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  Speaker 3: weed species and know what they want. What a good
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  Speaker 3: example of that is get in vindyards. You don't kill
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  Speaker 3: all weeds. You want to keep clover for example, because
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  Speaker 3: it fixes nitrogen. It's good for the soil. So that
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  Speaker 3: gave us the option and unfortunity to kill other weeds.
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  Speaker 3: You know, three four other species keep clovers alive. So
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  Speaker 3: it's been great and the progress has been wonderful in
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  Speaker 3: the last twelve months.
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  Speaker 2: It's good to hear. At the moment the mapen z
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  Speaker 2: is attached to a tract or a robot, is that correct?
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  Speaker 3: At the moment we're testing it on ag Research's on
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  Speaker 3: mobile robots. Sorry, but it can be attached to any
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  Speaker 3: tractor or any other vehicles. So it's really not depending
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  Speaker 3: on the vehicle. So people who want to buy the system,
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  Speaker 3: they won't have to buy any robot. So it's quite
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  Speaker 3: agnostic of the vehicle and the system that carries it.
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  Speaker 2: And then one day. I know that you're hoping it
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  Speaker 2: could work from a drone in hell environments, is that right?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, that's a big it's an ambitious target. But the
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  Speaker 3: fact is that from day one that I thought about
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  Speaker 3: this project, I was thinking, oh, of going on drones.
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  Speaker 3: At the moment, there's no need for that in our
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand setup. That's more for you know, you go
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  Speaker 3: further to the fields that cannot be you know, you
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  Speaker 3: can't carry the system in those fields. But regardless, it's
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  Speaker 3: too early for drones. We're just doing imaging on drones.
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  Speaker 3: Putting lasers on drones of course, has its own child.
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  Speaker 3: You want to make. You want to make sure that
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  Speaker 3: people are quite happy about them. But we have thought
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  Speaker 3: of all of that. It just needs more regulation in
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  Speaker 3: the future.
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  Speaker 2: Mar what are the benefits of technology like.
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  Speaker 3: This, Well, the benefits are of twofold really. At least
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  Speaker 3: one is sustainability and environment footprint. We're not trying to
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  Speaker 3: eliminate chemicals yet, but what we're trying to do is
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  Speaker 3: to be integrating this system into weed control, making it smarter,
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  Speaker 3: putting less footprint in the environment. So what happens is
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  Speaker 3: that you use your chemicals to get with a big,
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  Speaker 3: big weeds. And then when they regenerate and they reterminate,
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  Speaker 3: sorry and come back, we go and eliminate those weeds
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  Speaker 3: because that's what we do with detect them early and
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  Speaker 3: kill them early. And when you do that two three seasons,
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  Speaker 3: you will dilute the weat seeds in the soil, which
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  Speaker 3: is called seed bank. So that's what we do. That's
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  Speaker 3: number one. But also let's not forget that weeds are
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  Speaker 3: the biggest challenge to the crops yields and productivity, So
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  Speaker 3: more than drought, more than disease. What is causing crops
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  Speaker 3: not to perform our weeds Why because they're competing with
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  Speaker 3: crops for resources, water, nutrition, and everything else. So that's
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  Speaker 3: really two folds, you know, increase of desire traits which
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  Speaker 3: is increasing productivity and reducing footprint, so they don't normally
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  Speaker 3: people talk about these things. You think, you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: either productivity or environment. Now in this case it's both
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  Speaker 3: beneficial for both.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Doctor
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  Speaker 2: Kuma's game car tell you what I could do with
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  Speaker 2: a bit of map and seven my backyard at the moment, Gee,
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  Speaker 2: it's just taking off, isn't that fascinating what they're what
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  Speaker 2: they're doing, and what they're able to achieve.
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