Hardware Podcasts

Turning Plants into Living Sensors: Making Farming More Sustainable with Shely Aronov, Founder and CEO of InnerPlant

Hardware to Save a Planet · 17 Aug 2023 · 45m · Episode 33

What this episode covers

Shely Aronov, Founder and CEO of InnerPlant, explains how her company uses genetic engineering to turn crops like soybeans into living sensors that signal stress (such as fungal pressure or nitrogen deficiency) via fluorescence. She details the technology's journey from leaf-clip prototypes to a remote sensing model using satellite imagery and hyperspectral cameras to detect these signals from space. Aronov discusses the business strategy of embedding this technology into seeds sold by partners rather than selling directly to farmers, and highlights the critical role of precision application hardware like John Deere's See & Spray in closing the loop on chemical usage.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
InnerPlant, John Deere, Sabra, Blue River Technology, Impossible Foods, Tel Aviv University, NASA
Products
See & Spray

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • The Next Byte Podcast · 27m

    164. Dyson’s Automated, Self-sustaining Strawberry Farm

    Daniel and Forbode discuss Dyson's transition from consumer electronics to agriculture, detailing their 36,000-acre automated farm in the UK. They highlight the integration of anaerobic digesters for energy, robotic strawberry pickers, and precision herbicide robots that reduce chemical use by 90%. The episode also covers Murata's soil sensor technology, which helps farmers optimize yields and resource usage through data-driven insights.

    Robotics & autonomyEnergy & climate tech
    8 chapters

  • The Next Byte Podcast · 15m

    5. Making Rocket Fuel on Mars, Sustainable Transparent Wood, Plants Preventing Poisoning

    Daniel Scott Mitchell and Farbod Moghaddam discuss three engineering breakthroughs: NASA's MOXIE instrument, which extracts oxygen from Mars' CO2 atmosphere to enable rocket fuel production for return flights; University of Maryland researchers' scalable method for creating transparent wood by decolorizing lignin with hydrogen peroxide and UV light; and MIT’s SMART Alliance team's development of nanosensors embedded in plants to detect arsenic in real-time. The hosts highlight how these technologies address critical challenges in space exploration, sustainable materials, and agricultural safety.

    Energy & climate techMaterials & manufacturing processes
    5 chapters

  • IoT For All Podcast · 20m

    Smart Farming: The Role of IoT and AI | John Deere's Gaurav Bansal | Internet of Things Podcast

    Gaurav Bansal, VP of Engineering at Blue River Technology (a subsidiary of John Deere), discusses the integration of IoT, AI, and computer vision in smart farming to address labor shortages and climate challenges. He details the John Deere autonomous tractor, which uses stereo cameras and NVIDIA Jetson GPUs for obstacle detection, and the See & Spray system, which uses real-time computer vision to reduce herbicide usage by up to two-thirds. Bansal also highlights the critical role of connectivity, noting a partnership with Starlink to solve rural coverage gaps, and outlines John Deere's goal of achieving fully autonomous production systems for corn and soybeans by 2030.

    AI & machine learningConnected products & IoT
    6 chapters

  • The Next Byte Podcast · 22m

    7. Diagnosing Alzheimer’s At A Glance, The Stress You Sweat, Bloom’s Better Bioplastics

    Hosts Daniel Scott Mitchell and Farbod Moghaddam discuss three innovations: Duke University's AI model for early Alzheimer's detection via retinal imaging, EPFL and Xsensio's graphene-based sweat sensor for cortisol monitoring, and Bloom Biorenewables' method for producing high-performance bioplastics from biomass. The episode highlights how these technologies address diagnostic limitations, mental health tracking, and the environmental impact of petroleum-based plastics.

    AI & machine learningSensors & measurement in products
    4 chapters

  • The Robot Report Podcast · 57m

    Willy Pell from Blue River Technology brings AI to the farm

    Willy Pell, VP of Autonomy at Blue River Technology (acquired by John Deere), explains how the company applied machine learning and computer vision to automate farming, starting with the See & Spray weed management system and expanding to the autonomous John Deere AR tractor. Pell details the strategic decision to use stereo cameras instead of LIDAR due to dust and speed constraints, and describes how the system uses deep learning to detect crops versus weeds, achieving significant herbicide savings. The episode also covers the broader roadmap for autonomous tillage, planting, and grain cart coordination, drawing inspiration from Tesla's data-driven approach to achieve full autonomy in a semi-structured agricultural environment.

    AI & machine learningRobotics & autonomy
    7 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Hardware to Save a Planet. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.