At the U.S. Farm Progress Show last August, Solinftec threw its hat into the autonomous ag machine ring for North America, debuting its robotic Solix spot sprayer. Solinftec, which is headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, and in West Lafayette, Ind., announced prior to the show that it intends to make the Solix robot available in Canada.
Solix was originally introduced as a field scouting robot, but the company has now expanded its capabilities to include in-crop spot spraying. Similar to the previous scouting version, the Solix spot sprayer uses four on-board solar panels to power its drive and spray systems.
Just calling the Solix robot an autonomous sprayer doesn’t really sum up all of its capabilities, as it can do much more than spray. It works with Solinftec’s ALICE AI artificial intelligence program. Beyond just allowing the robot to recognize weeds and spot spray only them, ALICE AI enables Solix to report on the following:
- Crop populations
- Weed identification and densities
- Disease identification and thresholds
- Insect identification and thresholds
- Nutrient deficiency identification and densities
- NDVI among other layers of maps for data analysis
The company says despite its small size, the Solix sprayer can cover up to 100 acres per day, depending on the field shape and terrain.
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“Solinftec focuses on really solving structural problems in agricultural management and offers solutions that truly promote low-impact agriculture and not only measure or certify the footprint but offers a real solution to reduce your impact,” said Leonardo Carvalho, Solinftec’s head of business development for Canadian operations.
“Weed detection is a leading issue in fields across North America, and the Solix sprayer is designed to not only monitor and scan fields like the original scouting version but (also) detect and manage weeds with technology that allows the device to spot spray into the plant instead of from above, eliminating drift and soil compaction caused by larger machines and help lower environmental impact.”
Prototype machines were in fields in both Canada and the United States during the 2022 growing season, Solinftec says. That includes trials at Purdue University in the United States and the University of Saskatchewan. Those field-level trials are intended to improve the algorithm behind the computer’s ability to identify weed species, as well as ensure the Solix is fully compatible with regional growing conditions.
The company says its goal is to have the sprayer robots ready to work in Prairie wheat fields and be commercially available in Canada this year. They will be manufactured in North America by Indiana-based McKinney Corporation.
With the robot spraying only those plants identified as weeds, Solinftec says it will allow producers to greatly reduce the amount of chemical needed during the growing season. The company also claims the data it can collect and analyze with the ALICE AI system will bring field crop management down to the plant level.
For more information or to request a demo of the Solix spot sprayer, visit solinftec.com.
