Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, January 30, 2024 – The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) today unveiled the second story in an eight-part series highlighting results of the agtech research & innovation projects it is supporting through its 2022 Open Competition and its Beef & Pork Primary Processing Automation & Robotics Program.
CAAIN’s mandate from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) is to fund technological responses to the most significant opportunities available to, and challenges faced by, our agri-food producers and primary processors. That means supporting promising efforts with the potential to provide socio-economic or environmental value. The featured stories demonstrate that CAAIN is doing just that, as does the $32M it is investing in 35 projects with a combined total value of almost $100M.
“This project ticks several boxes for us,” explained Darrell Petras, CAAIN’s CEO. “First, as is the case with all the work we fund, a Canadian company is developing technology that will provide significant value to domestic farmers. Second, the solution in question relies on artificial intelligence and machine learning at a time when individuals, companies, and governments are recognising the tremendous benefits that can accrue to agriculture through the appropriate application of advanced computing. Third, this is the kind of R&D our growing system of smart farm networks was designed to evaluate and demonstrate. Not only can we fund the tech’s development, we have at our disposal the means to ensure its adoption and eventual commercial success if it proves effective. That is good for our country’s agricultural technology sector, our farmers, and the innovation’s ultimate early-stage investors, Canada’s taxpayers.”
Autonomous Tractor Kit for Enabling Autonomous Farm Implement Operation is led by Edmonton’s Mojow Autonomous Solutions. CAAIN is contributing $682,028 of the project’s $2,225,680 total cost. This extraordinary initiative will soon result in the commercialisation of truly autonomous equipment. Mojow’s EYEBOX™ platform will allow operators to “fire and forget” their sprayers, seeders, and planters. In other words, once the job has been programmed into the unit, the tractor it controls will drive itself to the field in question, navigating any roads or entrances it encounters along the way, make the necessary passes, and return to its starting point without any additional human interaction. That is true autonomy capable of revolutionising an industry dealing increasingly with labour shortages. EYEBOX ™ will lower costs, increase productivity, and reduce environmental impact.
For more information, read the story online.
-30-
The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) is a not-for-profit company launched in July 2019 with funding of $49.5‑million from the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund, and assistance from Alberta Innovates in the form of significant in-kind contributions. CAAIN drives collaborative agri-food technology research and innovation from coast to coast.
| Project Funding Inquiries Darrell Petras, P.Ag. CEO Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network darrell.petras@caain.ca |
Media Inquiries Eric Morin, CMP Manager, Communications and Marketing Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network 780.405.3742 | eric.morin@caain.ca |
||
