Blue River Technology combines AI and computer vision to build smarter farm tech. The company’s See & Spray machine learning technology, for example, detects individual plants and applies herbicide to the weeds only. The solution not only prevents herbicide-resistant weeds, but also reduces 90 percent of the chemicals currently sprayed. Blue River Technology is a subsidiary of Deere & Co. that combines artificial intelligence and computer vision to build smart farm tech, a growing need given population growth. The company’s See & Spray technology can detect individual plants and apply herbicide to the weeds only. This is designed to reduce the number of chemicals sprayed by up to 90% over traditional methods.
BRT was acquired by John Deere, a public company, for $305 million in cash on January 1, 2017. Blue River Technology was a startup that developed autonomous farming equipment using robotics and computer vision. It was founded in 2011 and had raised $30.75 million in funding over six rounds.