The 2026 Farm Robotics Challenge Awards Ceremony

Indexed: 2026-05-21

[00:00:57]because programmer is. Yeah, you're looking right at them.

[00:01:14]>> I like I like telling people like Oh, wow. It is Thank you.

[00:05:26]Sorry. Perfect.

[00:07:00]I will say I didn't realize I thought I smile.

[00:07:51]probably the I got you.

[00:09:41]Welcome in folks. I'll uh I'll invite you to take a seat uh and settle down here in the back. We are excited to kick off the celebration or the award ceremony for the farm robotics challenge. Uh we are really excited. It's the partnership we've had for the last couple of years with uh UCR.

[00:09:58]Really excited what we see this year and what we uh will continue to do in years to come. So with that, I'll I'll hand over to Kelly Scott with the university to to kick things off.

[00:10:07]>> Awesome. Thank you, Mark. Yeah, we're super happy to be here at Plug-and-Play Tech Center. Energy in the room is electric. I know we have folks that are tuned in on the live stream. Um, we'll get you out to this event at some point in time. There's really a a buzz of creativity, of innovation, of, you know, all the things that are are going to power us to the future. So, my name is Kelly Scott. I'm director of the Farm Robotics Challenge, and we are here to celebrate the award winners of this year's challenge. And this was a year-long project that student teams worked on. And uh they put a lot of grit, hard work, and energy into their projects. And today is the day we get to celebrate that. But I'm going to get off the mic here in a second. Uh it's my pleasure to introduce you to someone who is uh driving force of innovation uh and education across California and beyond.

[00:11:09]as vice president of UC agriculture and natural resources. Um she leads a statewide network of um researchers, educators that do community outreach and really bridge cutting edge research to um innovation to education pushing us forward. And uh I know she is personally a very passionate advocate of building bridges from science technology to community needs and she's been um extremely supportive of this challenge and it's really helped it grow. So without further ado, we're going to get the awards ceremony started here. It's my pleasure to introduce Vice President Glenda Humiston.

[00:12:01]Thank you.

[00:12:04]Thank you for that, Kelly. I appreciate it. So, it is very exciting to be here today. We are celebrating the ingenuity, the creativity, and the determination of students, student teams from all over the world who are using technology to solve real world challenges. These teams have spent months dining, building, testing, and refining ideas that show what is possible when curiosity meets purpose.

[00:12:39]This competition is unique because it is the only student design competition centered entirely on real world agricultural problems where teams build robotics, AI, and autom around controlled task. This program really connects participants with growers and industry partners in the field in conditions that demand robust solutions. That challenge helps prepare students to contribute to the future of agriculture.

[00:13:17]Interdisciplinary teams are at the heart of this program because they reflect um how innovation happens in the ag workforce. When students from agriculture, robotics, engineering, computer science and business disciplines, they build the communication, the collaboration and problem solving skills that employers need. Our become systems thinkers who can move from the field conversations to technical problem solving and build a bridge from the classroom to their future careers.

[00:13:58]So who are these students and where do they come from?

[00:14:03]The competition this year grew by leaps and bounds. We have a total of 96 teams who took part. What began just four years ago as a California dominated field has quickly expanded across the US and now around the world with entries from 13 countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Ghana, India, Lebanon, Peru, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. We are thrilled that each team is focused on solving challenges in its own region.

[00:14:41]They're identifying, testing, and tackling problems that are unique to their communities. Our goal is to elevate and showcase that hard work [snorts] and to connect these teams with promising solutions to a network could then accelerate development, support the growers, and ultimately strengthen the food system itself.

[00:15:03]The competition was structured into three divisions this year, reflecting different stages of educational pipeline. Division one projects span modern agriculture from production and logistics to analytics and ecology.

[00:15:18]These teams are tackling major pain points including harvesting, weeding, spraying, scouting, and irrigation while using robotics and AI to cut waste, reduce chemical use, and improve resilience.

[00:15:34]This year, we were excited to introduce division two for two-year colleges.

[00:15:41]I think I'm one slide behind. There we go. Division two for two-year colleges, widening the door into both higher education and the workforce. These students are often just a year or two away from industry. So, experience with real farm problem, cutting edge tools helps prepare them for high demand a tech roles while also highlighting transfer pathways into division one programs. This expansion was made possible with support from Go Biz and the state of California through California jobs first. In this inaugural year, eight division 2 teams join the competition. Seven from California and one from Hawaii.

[00:16:27]This year, we're also really excited to have 30 middle and high school teams through the Farm Robotics Academy, marking the first formal year of secondary students participating in the challenge, representing FA chapters, 4 clubs, and career technical education programs. These students showed that innovation in a month can start early when young people given real problems to solve. [snorts] The academy ground that builds skills and connects students to fund college and career pathways.

[00:17:07]Of course, there is extra motivation on the line today. more than $100,000 in prizes and awards, including a $50,000 best in show grand prize, major division awards across innovation, specialty crops, drone applications, and AI, plus opportunities to pitch at plug-andplay, and we really appreciate our partners play here. Also, some of the award winners will attend FRA 2026.

[00:17:39]These awards are designed not only to celebrate great ideas, but to help great teams take the next step.

[00:17:49]This program would not be possible without the support of our sponsors and partners. Their invest investment funds awards and expands the reach of the competition while also bringing expertise, mentorship, technical guidance and industry connections. At the leader level, we have Beex Hybrids, LINAC, and Blue White. Our builder level supporters are Morrison Forester, Western Association, PlugandPlay, Google or F3 innovate. Many projects utilize the AmIGGA robot platform from our partner Bonsai Robotics.

[00:18:31]This year's grand prize offered by our innovation partner Reservoir as challenge host. Thank you to the staff from UC ANR and UCNR innovate along with our co-host the artificial intelligence institute for next generation food systems.

[00:18:51]We would also like to recognize the generosity of the Mills estate through the K.

[00:18:57]Michael Mills Award for a mechanization which helps support hands-on innovation in agriculture.

[00:19:08]Challenge projects were evaluate evaluated by a judging panel of a tech leaders, investors, engineers, and researchers who reviewed proposals, assessed technical details, and weighed ambition against field readiness. The final decisions were not easy.

[00:19:26]Regardless of today's results, every team has our continued support and every team will receive feedback, significant feedback to help refine its technology and keep building from there.

[00:19:40]With that said, this is the group that has been identified as this year's finalists. As you can see, they are from all over the map. The judges consistently remarked that these 12 projects represent some of the strongest work they have ever seen in this competition with multiple projects described as investment ready and commercially viable. While only a few teams will receive awards today, every single one of these projects that made it to the stage demonstrated exceptional quality and real potential. To those not receiving awards, know that being selected as a finalist from among dozens of submissions itself is a significant achievement. All finalist project videos will be posted to our website alongside the award winners.

[00:20:34]Your work has been seen, your innovation has been recognized, and the feedback you receive will help accelerate your progress. We strongly encourage you to build on this momentum and return next year even stronger.

[00:20:50]So, let's get to what we're all waiting for. The judges choice award. The first one today will go to a team our panel selected for demonstrating exceptional perseverance, creativity, and ambition.

[00:21:06]This all female international team achieved remarkable results despite limited resources and multiple setbacks embodying the determination and innovation this competition celebrates.

[00:21:23]>> This is Aerosense Agribot an integrated precision a developed by team Nexus at the German international university. It begins with a mobile application where the user defines the farm size and required scanning accuracy based on these inputs.

[00:21:43]Plant stress and disease once an anomaly is identified that generates a precise digital map and marks the exact location using GPS coordinates. These coordinates are transmitted directly to the ground rover. This creates a continuous cycle of detection. The Hexopod ground rover is deployed. Inspired by the stability of spider locomotion, the rover uses six articulated legs to navigate uneven terrain without damaging crops, reliable movement across complex farmland environments.

[00:22:17]The rover is equipped with thermal sensors that measure temperature variations in plants and soil.

[00:22:25]This enables the system to determine whether the issue originates from plant disease, soil stress, or environmental imbalance guided by precise coordinates.

[00:22:37]The system also addresses pollination.

[00:22:40]The drone includes a soft bioinspired gripping mechanism designed to interact safely with delicate flowers.

[00:22:49]Inspired by the flexibility of octopus tentacles, it gently transfers pollen between plants.

[00:22:56]Integrated force sensors ensure precise and controlled interaction, protecting plant structures during operation.

[00:23:04]Aerosense Agribot is not just a system.

[00:23:08]It is the future of precision agriculture.

[00:23:12]Congratulations to the Nexus from the German International University in Cairo, Egypt. [applause] We have the team on a video call.

[00:23:32]Unfortunately, they weren't able to join us today. How are you folks doing?

[00:23:40]Oh, we can't hear them.

[00:23:44]Are you are you can you offer a few words?

[00:23:53]Are they muted or do we have a problem at our end?

[00:24:03]Okay. Um are are you able to go ahead and try speaking?

[00:24:11]Unfortunately, we're not able to hear you.

[00:24:16]Okay. I I'm afraid we're going to have to keep moving, but again, I just really want to offer the congratulations.

[00:24:23]Um, thank you so much. This was a very inspired project. We're very excited to see it, and I look forward to hope seeing you next in next year's competition.

[00:24:35][applause] As we move into these next awards, several teams will a travel stipen to join the Farm Robotics Challenge at this year's FRA USA conference where they will demo their projects alongside leading a tech companies.

[00:24:55]Our next award, excellence in AI, recognizes teams that use artificial intelligence in the most innovative and impactful ways to solve real agricultural problems, whether through robots, software, or integrated systems. Judges looked for advanced well-justified AI approaches that use data effectively and perform reliably real or simulated field conditions.

[00:25:27]We'll kick off things with the academy winner farmers do not need to learn complex systems.

[00:25:39]The system integrates drone intell unified workflowations across the field. AI models process the data and generate precise action plans.

[00:25:56]Ground robots execute those plans with targeted precision. [clears throat] Working prototypes were built using modular Lego systems. Modular design enables different tools for mowing and targeted removal of weeds. The system targets difficult weeds such as a thistle with precision. First prototype is built for under $3,000 supporting scalable deployment. Design leverages existing platforms like bonsai and gather focusing innovation on AI and tools. The approach is validated through field visits, robotic labs, and collaboration with engineers. This project reduces labor, elates pesticides, and delivers practical AI in the agricultural field. It makes advanced technology accessible scalable.

[00:26:51]Congratulations to team Almond Robotics from Modular Learning Inc. [applause] at at Davis Senior High School in Davis, California. I'd like to invite team adviserss DA and Yan up to the podium to accept the award.

[00:27:10]Whole team, come on. Oh, stairs over here.

[00:27:21]>> Congratulations. [applause] [applause] >> One [laughter] of you want to offer a couple comments? One of you a couple comments.

[00:27:32]>> Just a moment. Hi, I'm uh Dawe Lynn. Um I'm the coach for Omar Robotics and uh first I want to thanks organizers to have this amazing competition that the grounded on the real world problems. I think that's kind of what we're uh excited about. And um uh I think I just want to kind of uh share like the excitement that I have with the working with the kids is that um the AI uh I hope like we kind of show them through them to other kids that uh is not going to take your jobs actually going to give you a bright future, right? because AI is not taking people's job. It's the people who know AI to get rid of the jobs that is borrowing for people. So that's that's what we're we're fighting for.

[00:28:23]>> Thank you very much. [applause] >> I think we'll do a picture later.

[00:28:32]>> Yeah, we'll be doing pictures with all the award winners later, so don't go too far.

[00:28:40]Next up, we have our division two award.

[00:28:43]This team tackled a critical pest management direct detection issue that is facing citrus growers globally.

[00:28:54]Vard is a system designed to standardize monitoring using computer vision. Our challenge was to transform pest monitoring from a manual, delayed, and reactive process into a scalable digital decision system for real farming operations. At first, we designed VAR for row crops, but during field validation, we recognized a stronger opportunity in citrus production, which is highly relevant in our region and depends heavily on timely pest monitoring. This led us to adapt the project towards citrus applications in partnership with agrito citrus.

[00:29:39]On the top, a metal plate supports a custom 3D printed chamber where the adhesive trap is inserted. This chamber standardizes image acquisition by maintaining fixed focal distances of 8, 12, or 16 cm, reducing variation caused by light, angle, and operator handling.

[00:29:56]Inside the chamber, we installed a 16 megapixel autofocus camera connected to Raspberry Pi 02W, enabling automated image capture and local processing logic. Connectivity was initially achieved through Starlink, allowing feud images to be transmitted to our cloud platform, even in remote areas. The digital platform functions as the intelligent center of the system. It provides real-time positional telemetry of each trap, temperature and humidity sensors, historical records, and analytical reports correlating insect pressure with environmental conditions. This converts isolated trap counts into actionable biological intelligence. The platform also includes an economic threshold alert system. When pest incidents reaches the control level defined by the farm's management strategy, an alert is triggered. This threshold is not fixed.

[00:30:47]It is based on return over investment logic comparing production cost with treatment cost.

[00:30:55]Great. Congratulations to team from the Sunji Nishimura College [applause] of Technology in Pompea, Brazil. I think we have the team on a video call. Hi team. How you doing?

[00:31:11]>> Hello. How are you?

[00:31:12]>> Great. We can hear you. Let us know what you're thinking. Oh, perfect.

[00:31:17]>> Uh, no, it was great. Um, well, we have we're a team of 12, 13 people plus some people from the biological institute of Salo. So, I just want to thank the biological institute of Salo for the scientical partnership, fate, of course, for the structure, for the guidance, and of course, these beautiful people right here. Um, we're just trying to to keep Brazil pushing keep pushing Brazil to be a driving force.

[00:31:44]um in overall agriculture and specifically precision agriculture and uh thank you very much for the opportunity.

[00:31:51]>> Thank you and congratulations on your win. [applause] >> Our judges recognized this next team for strong technical execution, solid testing, and investment potential. A solution that could scale to other fruit picking applications. Our project is a watermelon harvesting robot. Before the US produced about 3.7 billion pounds of watermelons, about over1 billion to keep up with this demand, farmers must work at a very rapid pace. But with labor shortages and the physical demands of harvesting, maintaining this pace is becoming increasingly more difficult. This is our design for a watermelon harvesting robot. This design has two main components, the Dobot CR10 and the AmIGGA. The CR10 is a robotic arm that is responsible for the picking and placing of all watermelons. And the Omega is a mobile mobile robot that moves through the field using GPS tracking. Uh the Dough is mounted to the Omega on a 1-in thick aluminum plate.

[00:32:56]And the CR10 has a custom endector with a depth camera, a suction cup which is attached to a vacuum pump. On the back of the Omega are two collection bins. Uh this harvesting process starts when the robot moves into its scanning mode which allows the camera to detect watermelon using uh AI recognition software. Uh the computer then calculates the center of the watermelon and the robot moves the suction cup to the center and activates the vacuum creating a vacuum seal. Uh the watermelon is then lifted above all equipment and place into one of the bins and then returns back to its scanning position to scan for more watermelons.

[00:33:33]The robot follows waypoints driving in a lawnmower pattern between the crop rows.

[00:33:37]As it moves, it constantly calculates its position and heading, keeping itself on a straight path. Once it reaches a waypoint, it rotates itself to align precisely to harvest the watermelons.

[00:33:48]And then the robot automatically moves to the next waypoint and then repeats the whole process.

[00:33:53]>> The compliant gripper looks like it's going to be a safe tool to use from a bruising aspect and from a farm worker aspect. Watermelon harvesting is already a very labor intensive task that only becomes increasingly more difficult with labor shortages. Our design hopes to solve these problems by reducing the need for multiple people to harvest watermelons and to reduce the labor intensivity.

[00:34:17]>> Congratulations to the division one winner for excellence in AI, the University of Delaware Blue Hens in Newark, Delaware. I believe we're on the call. [applause] All right. Thank you.

[00:34:31]Hi team, please say a few words with us.

[00:34:35]>> Okay, great. Yeah, thank you so much for the organizers, the sponsors and the judges for this incredible uh competition uh which allows us to really innovate in digital agriculture.

[00:34:48]Um so uh we are so thrilled and uh honored to receive this award. Uh actually this is the second year we received the award from the farm robotics challenge. So it means a lot.

[00:35:01]Um so the project uh idea originated from uh of research from the national robotic uh national watermelon association. So they're looking for ways to automate some of the labor uh intensive tasks with harvesting and um so that's where we started and then we have an amazing um senior design engineering team who worked on the grippers and the vision system and the robotic arm. And in the last few months um we work really hard to integrate all these systems and with the navigation to make it more autonomous. Um so uh I think the effort pulled off and this year we really tried to improve the quality of our presentation and videos.

[00:35:51]Um so I'm really um excited and thrilled to receive this award. And also I want to thank the our a partner James Atkins who is a uh watermelon uh farmer and also a engineer who really give us some uh critical insights into the system and also the limitations give us some uh directions to further improve the system.

[00:36:19]Um last just thank you again for this incredible award. We'll see you next year.

[00:36:24]>> Great. Thank you. Congratulations again.

[00:36:27][applause] >> All right. Thank you.

[00:36:32]>> The Excellence in Drone Application Award celebrates bold and innovative uses of aerial robotics in agriculture from precision mapping to real-time crop insights and targeted field actions.

[00:36:50]This high school team is aiming to agricultural commodity right in the heart.

[00:36:59]>> An issue that we have see all 10,000 cows in one day. It's impossible.

[00:37:07]>> Large dairies, it's nearly impossible to constantly monitor every cow. Even a small delay in detecting illness can lead to lost milk production or worse.

[00:37:18]We have worked tirelessly with multiple dairy operators and owners to solve this issue. We have come up with a drone powered by AI to make sure that you get every cow accounted for using computer vision. Our system scans herds and identifies abnormal behavior, posture, and isolate patterns. Our system goes beyond existing solutions by covering larger areas, monitoring young calves, and reducing time it takes to find problems. We want to accommodate dairies of all sizes and allow for scalability based on your demands. Thus, our drones are very modular by design.

[00:38:04]Smarter monitoring means healthier cows, more efficient dairies, and a better future for agriculture. Congratulations to team DM and Hos from from Mission Oak High School in Taller, California. And we've got the team on the video.

[00:38:28]Please say a few words.

[00:38:31]>> Thank you for the opportunity to compete in this competition as well as thank you for every >> You need to peek up just a little bit.

[00:38:39]Uh yeah, [laughter] >> thank you for the opportunity to uh compete in this competition. We really appreciate it because we've been engineering for the past four years in the in academy that we have. And uh thank you for everyone including our teachers and family for supporting us in this endeavor.

[00:39:01]>> Thank you guys. We really appreciate your effort.

[00:39:04]>> Thank [applause] you guys so much. Thank you.

[00:39:09]So we have to highlight a special story here. This team began in our farm robotics academy but its project was so strong the judges moved it up to compete with college team.

[00:39:25]The problem we chose focus on something farmers deal with constantly.

[00:39:29]Inconsistent tree health and yield across an orchard. Right now, it's difficult and timeconuming to monitor individual trees. Most management decisions are made across entire sections, not at the tree level. That means problems like disease, irrigation issues, or dead trees can go unnoticed until they've already impacted production. Farmers need better, faster ways to identify and respond to issues at a much more precise level.

[00:39:55]And it combines two coordinated technologies, a farming drone and a ground rover. The goal is simple. scan large areas quickly from the air, then follow up with a detailed ground level inspection exactly where it's needed.

[00:40:09]We designed the drone in Fusion 360 and built it using laser cut aluminum, carbon fiber tubes, and custom 3D printed components. It uses a Pix 6C flight controller, which allows for autonomous flight and consistent mission planning. The drone is equipped with three cameras. A forward- facing camera for live video feed and monitoring and two downward-facing mapping cameras that capture images that are used to generate a detailed 3D map of the orchard. The second part of the system is our unmanned ground vehicle or UGV, the farm rover. Like the drone, it was designed in Fusion 360. The frame is built from base plate to support electronics and sensors. The rover uses the same Pixhawk 6C controller, which allows both systems to share a common control architecture and communicate effectively.

[00:40:56]Once the drone identifies a problem area, the rover autonomously navigates to that location. During testing, the drone successfully mapped the orchard and identified areas of concern. The rover was able to navigate to those locations and provide close-up video, giving a much clearer understanding of what was actually happening at the tree level.

[00:41:16]This coordinated workflow significantly reduces the time needed to inspect large orchards while improving the quality of the data collected. The canopy system creates a smarter, more efficient way to manage orchards. By combining aerial mapping with targeted ground inspection, it allows farmers to move from general observations to precise, actionable insights. The impact of this project is simple but powerful. Better data, faster decisions, and ultimately the potential for higher yields and more efficient farming. Congratulations [applause] CEK Titans from Career Technical Education Charter School in Fresno, California. Please come up to the stage.

[00:42:02][applause] one of you gonna speak for a moment.

[00:42:19]>> Yeah.

[00:42:20]>> Just wanted to say thank you very much.

[00:42:22]Also the uh the shout out to put us up in a different category. We appreciate that. We uh as CEK Titans, we always want to fight strong. So we appreciate that. Just want to quickly thank uh Career Technical Education Charter High School and Fresno County Superintendent of Schools for being our educational partners. Joe Quelho of Qu American Pistachio Growers Association uh for being our A partner and Precision Civil Engineering and um F3 Innovate for being our financial partners and helping what these amazing kids put together and did.

[00:42:52]They designed that and built that from scratch. And so um my co-mentor and I, Kim Calderon, are extremely um graciously and and continue to be in awe of what these kids can think of and do.

[00:43:04]and thank all of you for sponsoring this and putting this on that allows these kids to have an application. They're not just playing video games and and playing around, but they're actually going to change some stuff to help you guys and maybe be here at plug and play pretty soon. So, I really appreciate that.

[00:43:18]Thank you very much.

[00:43:19]>> Thank you. [applause] Thank you very far. We'll want to get some photos later.

[00:43:32]So judges were unanimous that this next project was the most engineering mature project they reviewed. The team built everything from scratch. The drones, the swarm coordination system with sophisticated routing optimization and an innovative soil sampling payload.

[00:43:58]Their documentation was exceptional and their systems integration was seamless, simply a standout project.

[00:44:11]Fleet, our drone based autonomous soil sampling system. Due to soil and weather conditions, the moisture content across fields can have huge. Farmers whose time is already spread thin lack the resources to collect high precision soil moisture data across their fields. Lack of access to this detailed information can lead to crop over or underwatering at increased cost to the farmer.

[00:44:32]>> Some people have been investigating using satellite systems and doing remote monitoring. Uh the problem with using satellites is they tend to have low spatiotemporal resolution. So the system that we've devised allows you to easily take subfield level samples and you can build a a fieldcale map.

[00:44:50]>> This information is then served to the farmer in a convenient user interface.

[00:44:55]Having a good estimate of where on the field is dry and where it's wet can help us better use our limited irrigation and stop wasting water.

[00:45:04]>> Testing in the field. Swarm and flight behavior were tested in a custom simulation environment. To manage the fleet, our multi-agent planner optimizes for full field coverage while minimizing flight time and interfleet collisions.

[00:45:16]Out on the farm, our system showed great progress in its ability to take off and fly with the sampling payload. During flight, the drones were to use their onboard GPS and inertial measurement units to accurately fly to their target way points. Building the future of agriculture requires bold ideas, cross-discipline cooperation, and strong stakeholder engagement. Hydrole demonstrates that robotics is a part of this future, improving efficiency and quality of life for farmers.

[00:45:42]Congratulations.

[00:45:46][applause] Our division one winners for excellence in drone applications is the Oland College Robotics Lab. Olan College of Engineering in a small but mighty institution in Needm, Massachusetts with a total student population of just 400 students.

[00:46:12]Someone from the team is here.

[00:46:13][applause] >> Congratulations.

[00:46:19]>> Um, thank you so much for this opportunity. Um, want to give a huge shout out to our professor Kenna and our mentor Harvey. Um, and a huge huge shout out to uh, Poistit Farms and CBM Farms.

[00:46:32]Solutions without implementations are just ideas. So, thank you for helping us bring our idea to life. Um and especially huge in enormous shout out to the team for working together. As uh we've mentioned Owen's a very small uh school specifically for engineering and working together in this team has been really awesome. Uh so thank you so much.

[00:46:52]>> Thank you.

[00:46:53]>> Congratulations.

[00:46:55][applause] Well, that should be an inspiration to small schools and institutions everywhere um to hopefully compete in future years.

[00:47:09]Next, we're honored to welcome a leader who has instrumental in advancing innovation across agriculture. Walt Duflock serves as senior vice president of innovation at Western Growers where he champions technology adoption and supports the future of specialty crop production. Please join me in welcoming Walt Duflock to present the Western Growers Awards for Excellence in Specialty Crops.

[00:47:37][applause] All right. Awesome. Great to see everybody. Great to see the teams. Great to see the advancement in this competition every year. Great not to see my slides, but I'll have to uh There we are. All right. So, a little bit about Western Growers and why we care about this farm robotics challenge. Um we represent over 2,000 spectrop growers.

[00:48:04]You guys know know some of them. Some of them are here this week. Taylor Farms Driscolls Berries comes to this uh summit event regularly. The um innovation team is focused on the large specialy crop challenges. That net out to two things for all the fruits, nuts, and vegetable growers on in our association. First is labor. Labor is a massive problem. Second is chemistry restrictions. We're getting more and more restrictions on bands or restricted usage for chemistries like pesticides and herbicides. And we need those tools and we need replacement tools for those.

[00:48:36]So those are our two big focus areas.

[00:48:38]Why we sponsor the farm robotics challenge is mainly because uh we want to help the early teams and the student teams get excited about this space and we want to get act automation moving forward because without this the labor challenge will mean that a lot of California growers need to farm other places and we don't like that. We'd like them to farm here and on the west coast when they can.

[00:49:04]So, just to give everyone a quick scope uh of the problem for labor, uh California growers in 2024 alone paid 16.3 billion for $850 million of farm labor. Uh that's against the $61 billion a GDP number. So, you can see this is our largest input cost. It's not seeds, it's chemistry, it's labor. And it breaks down into two work chains. Uh first is one-third of the hours are spent on non-h harvest work, right? So you've got weeding, thinning, spraying, harvest assist, everything that's not harvest in this bucket. It's about 3 to 5% automated as we sit here today.

[00:49:40]Reasonable target of 15 to 20% by 2030.

[00:49:44]Most of that labor is about 16 to $18 an hour. Um right, that's domestic labor for the most part. Harvest work is the other big work stream that we have.

[00:49:54]Harvest work is twothirds of the hours picking and harvesting all the fruits, nuts, and vegetables that we deliver all over the world so people can eat the healthy food. Um, it's about zero to 1% automated right now. It's really hard to replace those skilled farm workers that can look at plants, know which ones to pick, pick them, and put them in a bin, right? Um, we've got a stretch goal 3 to 5% by 2030. I think that's optimistic. I don't know that we'll get there. I'm hoping work and help out because without that you can and increasingly this is now H2A labor because the agency situations create desperate needs for some short timelines for these workers. So we're bringing H2A workers up at a 10% clip for California and when you house and transport and feed and add those costs that's 28 to $30 an hour right and we're competing against growing regions that are significantly lower than that. So, we need these automation solutions more than ever in California.

[00:50:56]So, how do we help startups? Well, we work with folks like Plug-and-Play to make sure that um all of the startups that are out there get a fair shake.

[00:51:04]This is basically our our front door.

[00:51:07]They do global scouting for us. Um they're all over the world. So, we're all over the world because they're all over the world for us. They have a startup intake form where you can enter your startup information much like an accelerator competition and you can basically use that as the front door to get to Western Growers. There's hundreds well 7- 800 automation startups. There's another 1300 biological and and related startups. There's no way that 2,000 Western Growers members can talk with 2,000 plus startups in just those two key categories. So the front door that Plug-and-Play provides is a great tool for us. Uh third, a Sharks is our annual meeting show. It's a Shark Tank style show that gets startups and a tech investors in front of people on a stage and it's our Western Growers annual meeting. Really an annual highlight of the event. So, A Sharks is fantastic.

[00:51:54]Plug-and-play helps us pick those startups and is an investor judge with those startups. And spoiler alert, this year Sed's going to join us in Hawaii for our 100th anniversary. We're super excited. Say might have just been looking for a trip to Hawaii. We're happy to help. Um, finally, we've got a um collaborative capital approach that we're taking to fix some of the VC shortfall. We're down 70% on venture capital in four years. We have some solutions that we want to try and implement. Nothing to report on yet, but just know that we're working that area hard because it's important to get capital. We have a reservoir farm partnerships. How many folks know Reservoir Farms and Selenus? Few of you went down, I think. Yeah. Go ahead. I'll clap for sure. We agree. So, it's been a two and a half year journey with Danny Res Danny Bernstein and the reservoir team. It's been fantastic. It's the world's first onfarmm robotics incubator and it's live in Selenus. It's live in Soma. It'll be live in Merrced. Each region is going to have its own crops and its own startup set to work with.

[00:52:53]Over 50 to 60 startups will be in these three locations with a membership to Reservoir Farms by the end of the year.

[00:52:59]And we couldn't be happier because this shaves the time and the cost needed to get to first product for these startup teams.

[00:53:07]And you see the main three areas. Shared commercially grown acreage, big idea.

[00:53:11]Shared R&D space, big idea. Shared John Deere equipment, our third partner in this in this effort. Also a great idea.

[00:53:18]Finally, we've got case studies and tech validation with more coming. The Western Growers case, best-in-class economic analysis of what it takes to justify a 1.4 laser weeder from Carbon Robotics, for example. Um, the tech validations that Reservoir is going to do are going to be different. They're going to be private evaluations that they share with the startup to fill to fills on where they've been and where they need to go.

[00:53:40]And more of these are coming. And finally, we like to get all these folks in front of uh in front of you folks, the growers and the investors and the customers on this. Fury USA, Reservoir Farms events, UCR events, and a tech Alliance events are all on the docket.

[00:53:56]Anytime you can get folks in the dirt talking with the startup operators and the growers, good things happen. We try and promote that when we can.

[00:54:06]So, I mentioned the intake form. Here's the URL. I'll give you guys about 15 seconds to get your phones out or come see me afterwards. It's a big URL. Um, but that is the front door for Western Growers.

[00:54:20]So, the excellent special crop awards, this is the position for these awards were really tricky. There were a lot of competitors. Um, this award specifically focuses on the startup that delivers the best set of solutions for commercial success in crops that really matter. And those were two big criteria. I will say as a judge for the past couple years and I think since the competition started, this bar this year was the highest it's ever been. So kudos to all the teams.

[00:54:45]The finals, all 12 were fantastic. Any of these folks could have won could have won a lot of these competition elements.

[00:54:51]But uh I will just say the bar is high this year and you know that's true because if it wasn't true I wouldn't put it in a bullet point. We we wouldn't just we would say nothing, right? So well done to the teams that competed.

[00:55:00]Well done to the teams that win. And with that I want to give out the excellence and specialy crops to three folks.

[00:55:08]The academy winners. I see what you guys did. Sorry. How do I play the video?

[00:55:15]>> You're right. Thank you. And they've been up here before. So, CEK, come on back. You are the the CEK Titans from the Career Technical Education Charter High School in Fresno, the Academy winner. Please up on stage.

[00:55:30]You guys know your way around.

[00:55:37]Well done.

[00:55:41]Cool. Thank you.

[00:55:49]Do you want to say it this time?

[00:55:52]>> Well, [laughter] come on.

[00:55:53]>> They're great at technology. I just thank you again. I I appreciate the more that uh these kids and their efforts can be awarded is uh very rewarding for them in the future. So, um really sincerely appreciate uh all the involvement and support of what these uh kids want to do and and support. They didn't quit. They worked hard and uh I'm incredibly proud of them. Thank you.

[00:56:15][applause] Well done. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:56:20]It turns out the robot kids aren't always the speech and debate kids. Who knew?

[00:56:26]All right. Our D2 winner for excellence in specialy crops. If I just press play, will it Oh, sorry. You guys have Thanks, Kelly.

[00:56:39]>> We'll be presenting our artichoke crop monitoring system. This project applying engineering and robotics to improve agricultural monitoring by developing a system capable of collecting environmental data directly from the field. The motivation behind this project comes from the challenges farmers face when managing large-scale crops. Monitoring variables such as soil moisture, temperature, and plant health manually can be timeconuming, labor intensive, and often inconsistent. To address this problem, we used the Omega robotic platform which is basically designed for agricultural applications.

[00:57:15]Um, so we basically in integrated multiple sensors into the robot to be able to collect environmental data. The system was designed to move through crop rows and gather details and data that could later be analyzed. A maj a major focus of our project was testing the system in a real world environment rather than a controlled setting. We conducted field training in an agricultural area where we evaluated how the system performed under actual farming conditions such as uneven terrain and varying soil properties.

[00:57:50]During the implementation of this, we worked on sensor calibration, a little bit of data collection, um a lot of data collection accuracy, and more than anything, system reliability. We wanted this to be a very rel reliable project and something that we could be able to take out in in the real world and experiment with.

[00:58:10]>> Despite these challenges, we were able to successfully collect environmental data and demonstrate the systems potential in a real agricultural setting. The results showed that the concept is viable and can be improved with further development.

[00:58:26]This project demonstrates how engineering and robots can be applied to solve real world agricultural challenges.

[00:58:35]>> All right. And I will tell you folks, as a as a kid who grew up on a fifth generation family farm in the Selenus Valley, I work closely with Hartnell.

[00:58:43]And disclosure, I'm on the advisory committee for a tech. That had no bearing on this vote. It's just an awesome job by the team. And it's great to see Selenus and Hartnell not just competing, but winning this award. So Hartnell, come on up.

[00:58:55]>> [applause] >> GREAT JOB SQUAD.

[00:59:11]CONGRATS.

[00:59:13]>> Awesome job.

[00:59:18]>> How's it going everybody? Uh so on behalf of our team from Hornell Farm Robotics, I'd like to sincerely thank everybody from the organizers, the judges, the mentors, and the industry partners who were able to make all of this possible. Um this challenge has gave us an incredible opportunity to apply real world agricultural to apply our things that we learned to real world agricultural problems. Uh we're especially grateful for the support from Motion Miss Farms, from Bonsai Robotics, and from our advisor, Richard Chapman.

[00:59:51]Um this experience has helped us grow as students, as engineers, and real problem solvers. Um and just to finish it off, thank you to everybody that uh is believing in us, and um yeah, we're the next gen innovators, so we're here to stay. Thank you guys.

[01:00:07][applause] That would be the Red Scouts. Great job, Hardell.

[01:00:20]And lastly, our D1 winner for excellence in specially crops.

[01:00:24]Let's see the video.

[01:00:26]>> Almonds are a key part of California's agricultural economy. They account for nearly 80% of the world's supply and support more than 100,000 jobs statewide, many of which are on family operated farms. This large scale depends heavily on what occurs during bloom season, a critical time window during which growers make key decisions about pollination and beehive placement that directly impact their annual yield.

[01:00:48]>> After conversations with industry partners and growers at the almond board's conference, we identify a significant challenge in almond pollination during the bloom season.

[01:00:55]With collaboration with our farm advisers, we designed, developed, and tested a fully automated pollination system leveraging multimodal sensing.

[01:01:03]Accurate bloom quantification requires resolving occlusion at every scale. Our drone follows a pre-programmed set of way points capturing canopy level true imagery to record bloom density across the arand orchard acting as our set of eyes in the air. The amigga traverses each row with cameras on either side providing a ground level view of the parallel rows. This multimodal architecture eliminates single viewpoint coclusion and ensures near complete bloom visibility.

[01:01:33]>> We developed a multi-agent AI framework to quantify bloom density at the individual tree level. So far we know where the flowers are through our bloom density map. But that's one half of the equation. The next question is are bees actually visiting the trees with high yield potential? To answer that we've deployed flight sensor developed by FarmSense. The sensor uses onboard machine learning to identify bees based on wingbeat frequency and then sends counts to a cloud dashboard. We use these sensors in two different settings, stationary to track long-term activity and mobile mounted on the Omega to capture spatial variation. This allows us to build a map of bee traffic density so that we can clearly see where pollination is happening and more importantly where it's not. APS Bloom is a product that mimics the ferommones bees used to target blooms and it has shown a positive impact on almond yield.

[01:02:21]The challenge though is that it still has to be applied manually throughout the orchard. Our system addresses this challenge by combining an AI enabled bloom density map and B traffic data to navigate our AMIA robots to target exactly where pollination is needed the most. Then our fully automated actuator system applies API bloom with an electric cult gun triggered by our sensing system. This makes pollination more precise, more efficient and far more scalable.

[01:02:55]Ah, fantastic. And again, very competitive category on this one, but please come on up the Aggie Aerial Ground Robotics team from UC Davis. Well done, team. [applause] And Ally already knows my number one question is when are we building a startup? Let's go.

[01:03:16]>> Thank you. Appreciate it. So, >> good afternoon. Um, thank you so much. I just wanted to in a few seconds that I have, I want to thank Farm Robotics Challenge, UCR, APHS and all the judges and the sponsors for putting together and organizing such an incredible competitive uh competition. It was phenomenal to see what others teams have been doing. Uh we have to work together to push the envelope and then work move toward more sustainable and productive way and leveraging all of this advanced technology. Unfortunately, A is always lagging behind and I hope that we can work together to kind of be move toward that sustainability. Um I want to thank um uh uh UC Davis College of A College of Engineering and our department for the tremendous support and and then lastly but not least um I want to congrat um for their dedication and a lot of work. We are probably one of the shortest team. Uh we had only four four months but um they did a lot of curiosity, creativity and efforts into that project. Today is your day. Thank you. Thank you so much. Congratulations.

[01:04:33][applause] Thank you again. Congrats.

[01:04:43]>> All right. And before I step off stage, just one quick update. The last year's award winner for the Specially Crop Awards, if folks remember, was the UG, the Bulldogs with their drone spray solutions. Uh I was down there in Tiffan a couple weeks ago. They had a great uh a tech show down there in the southeast corner. They're really trying to get into Florida's kitchen and try and take some of their buzz away. I'll give them credit. They put a great event on. That team is not yet commercialized. So Ally, the clock is ticking. Which one of us gets the commercialation first? UG or Davis? Let's find out. And that's it.

[01:05:13]Thanks for THE TIME, FOLKS.

[01:05:16]>> [applause] >> FANTASTIC. LOVE HEARING THE UPDATE, TOO.

[01:05:25]That was a great product last year. So, I'm up here to uh introduce our next presenter, Brendan.

[01:05:38]There we go. Sorry, catching up with my things here. Brendan Dowel, who's right there. Thank you. Chief Business Officer of Bonsai Robotics. This competition was originally inspired by the AmIGGA platform, which you've seen several times today. This platform gives teams a strong starting point from day one and allows them to focus on building expanded solutions. We are very grateful to the Bonsai team for being a trusted partner in the challenge. Brendan, if you'd come on up.

[01:06:16]Well, thank you. I mean, pretty remarkable these projects. Uh, this was incredibly difficult to judge and to rate winners. Um, it's just pretty amazing to see how this challenge this challenge has advanced over the last several years and just very excited to see how this progresses over the next next several here. So um as many of you know FarmNG has um recently uh joined the Bonsai family. Um you know we um um have been supporting the Farm Robotics Challenge from the you know the very beginning uh supporting UCR and Aphus um and you know very excited to see the step up in the quality of the projects this year. Um um as part of being part of the Bonsai team, we now can introduce new capabilities to um the farm robotics challenge. Um and you know these capabilities we will be able to provide to students on an ongoing basis.

[01:07:24]So at Bonsai we believe solving agricultural's toughest challenges is not just about technology. is about empowering the next generation of talent to wield this technology to the most pressing issues that growers face.

[01:07:38]Feeding the world with fewer resources, less labor, less water, less margin for error is one of the defining challenges of our time. Solving it requires people with the skills and vision to apply robotics and AI in one of the most complex environments there is, agriculture.

[01:07:55]That's why these projects matter and why we are proud to be part of the farm robotics challenge.

[01:08:03]The Bonsai Amigga provides students an ability to leverage a proven platform to develop next generation applications that support our growers. Similar similar to in years past in all of the Bonsai Amigga based projects, students deployed prototypes using robotics and AI that had demonstrable outcomes.

[01:08:23]Students will leave this challenge with hands-on technical experience and a clear understanding of how robotics and AI can deliver real world outcomes. And in agriculture, outcomes are everything.

[01:08:40]This year, 24 teams competed for the Omega Innovation Awards. The AmIGGA Innovation Award honors the most groundbreaking application developed using the Omeigga platform. As always, choose the winners was incredibly difficult. We evaluated teams on technical excellence, creativity, real world impact, and how effectively they use the AmIGGA's capabilities from at uh from automation and attachments to software and AR workflows. Most importantly, we looked for solutions with clear practical value and the potential for broader adoption.

[01:09:20]This year we are especially excited to welcome not only university teams but for the first time students from community colleges and high schools which were eligible for division 2 and academy prizes. So now without further delay, we're here to honor those teams that exemplify the many different ways the amigga can be used.

[01:09:41]Kicking things off with the academy division which awards the top high school project in this year's challenge.

[01:09:47]This team built a folure feeding robot integrating various off-the-shelf solutions to develop a market ready robot that is easy to use by small-scale farmers. The practicality of the solution really impressed our judge our judging panel.

[01:10:05]>> Small farms like Blosser stroke the shrinking with a shrinking workforce and the intense manual labor required for precision farming. specifically their team with sprayers for folure feeding a slow physical.

[01:10:24]Our goal automate this task using the farm NG Amigga to increase efficiency and precision while reducing the physical toll on farmers. In terms of efficiency, the AmIGGA proves that it could navigate the narrow rows of an urban farm without the soil compaction or diesel fumes of a traditional tractor.

[01:10:46]This is all while operating for up to eight hours on a single charge.

[01:10:53]The impact here is twofold.

[01:10:55]Environmentally, folure feeding is up to 20 times more efficient than soil application, especially in the cold or high pH soils of the central coast.

[01:11:06]Bya, we minimize nutrient runoff and prevent environmental leeching.

[01:11:13]Socially, we are transforming farm labor. Instead of a worker carrying 40 lbs of chemicals on their back, they become a technician managing a robotic fleet.

[01:11:24]At a total build cost of under $500 for the sprayer attachment, this technology is finally accessible to the smallcale farmer.

[01:11:37]Congrats to the team from MRC Farm Robotics from the Mark Richardson CTE Center agricultural farm.

[01:11:45]I believe we have them on video.

[01:12:03]Do we have you on the phone?

[01:12:10]>> Andria, go ahead and speak.

[01:12:17]>> Okay, moving on. Well, congratulations.

[01:12:19]This was a remarkable project.

[01:12:27][applause] >> Hello.

[01:12:33]>> Do we have them on the line?

[01:12:43]>> Hello. Can you hear me?

[01:12:44]>> Yes, we can. We can hear you.

[01:12:47]>> Okay. Um, I would like to say uh thank you and that our project is going to continue. We have a lot more work to do.

[01:12:57]And I want to say thank you to Santa Maria Joint Union High School District and all of my teammates as as well as our adviser Mr. Gamro.

[01:13:16]>> Fantastic. Well, thank you all for the engagement here. Again, a remarkable project.

[01:13:22][applause] So, next up, our division 2 winner, which awards the top community college project in this year's challenge. This next team built an autonomable rate sprayer for vineyards in such a short amount of time was truly remarkable. They built a robot with its own autonomy capabilities such as route following and follow me capabilities.

[01:13:52]These innovations are just a few highlights highlights of what was an exceptionally ambitious project.

[01:13:59]Our project presents a solarp powered autonomous amigga robot designed for both daytime and nighttime precision weather spraying. This system integrates vision-based navigation, variable rate spraying, and thermal management to solve key challenges affecting both farm operations and robot performance.

[01:14:15]Combining vision-based navigation, precision weather aware spraying, thermal management, and UAV based monitoring. First, to overcome GPS limitations, we implemented two vision-based navigation methods using an Oakd camera. The first method is a farmer detection and tracking navigation system where the robot follows a human operator using pose detection. The system extracts body landmarks and bounding box information to estimate distance and adjust movement. The system estimates canopy density in a real time.

[01:14:43]This information is used to generate a control signal that drives a pulsewidth modulation controller which regulates the pump and enables variable rate spraying. This ensures that chemicals are applied efficiently based on canopy conditions. Finally, we are developing a UAV-based monitoring system that can autonomously launch from the robot, capture RGB and thermal images, monitor livestock, and return for landing and data synchronization.

[01:15:10]By integrating vision- based navigation, precision spraying and thermal protection, the Omega robot becomes more reliable and effective for both daytime and nighttime spraying operations. Our work demonstrates how combining practical engineering solutions with real field testing can lead to a robust and fieldready agricultural robotic system.

[01:15:31]>> So congrats to the team Tiger A Botics from Reedley College. I think you guys are here. Um, we'll welcome you up on the stage.

[01:15:52]Congratulations.

[01:16:02]>> Our whole team couldn't be here because actually it's our graduation day. So half the team's in walking right now.

[01:16:08]Actually probably getting ready to walk on stage. So uh these are two representative students and our one of our atteters. Um just want to thank our administration for the support for helping us with the funding getting us the parts and also our instructors Allan Viscara here for our program and our uh other instructor Emanuel Abioi who is actually uh going to be probably at the graduation right now. So that's why they have me. So you get me instead of them.

[01:16:36]Uh, [laughter] and I'm just really the support guy to help them give additional funding and and whatever tools they need. Um, but our administration's been very supportive and our students here, this is really their work and so really if they were up to it, I have them speak, but I think they're a little shy.

[01:16:54]So, uh, but that's that's really it.

[01:16:56]Thank you for the opportunity and thank you guys for having us.

[01:17:01][applause] for the top for the top amigga innovation award and the $10,000 prize. This award recognizes the top four-year university team. The judges praised this team for an exceptional robotics integration, bringing together robotic navigation and field scouting in a way that is very impressive for a student project. We are impressed with the articulation camera system which re reaches oluded parts of a canopy and collects richer data than competing approaches today.

[01:17:48]We were also impressed by the visual interface in which growers can monitor exactly what was happening in the field.

[01:17:55]These innovations are just some of the elements of what we felt was a differentiated solutions from even what's in the market today.

[01:18:04]We are the Firebliters from Carnegie Melon University and our focus is on building a fully autonomous system for detecting fire blight in apple orchards during dormcy. We give growers the information they need to find and track the fire blight disease in real time so that they can protect their orchards. In the United States alone, losses can reach hundreds of millions of dollars annually during severe outbreaks. I generally see fire bllight every year.

[01:18:31]There's a lot of conditions when you have an orchard. Fire blight ranks up there near the top, but fire blight kills the tree. If you're missing a production, it's a constant scouting effort to make sure that you keep it out of orchards as best as you can.

[01:18:48]Growers need a fast and reliable way to detect disease early and take action. We built Irwin, the autonomous orchard robot designed to navigate rows, detect fire blight symptoms, and map them in real time. In order to detect disease symptoms in trees, we use a flash RGB stereo camera and an Exmia multisspectral camera mounted onto the end of a robotic arm. We wanted to mimic the way that a human might actively search for disease symptoms within a tree. We designed and implemented several intelligent view planning algorithms which determine the next view with the most uncertain predictions and unknown space. We reconstruct the scene by passing the left and right stereo images through a stereo matching model.

[01:19:30]The detections from the vision model are then projected onto the 3D representation.

[01:19:35]We The robot begins by navigating to a tree. Once positioned, it actively search for fire bllight symptoms from select viewpoints and uses these views to build a 3D map highlighting. All of this information is streamed to a simple interface where growers can monitor progress in real time through an overhead heat map of the orchard. When fire blight is detected, it immediately appears in both the detection view and the reconstructed tree, showing exactly where the infection is on the tree. If a tree is infected, the system marks it on the ground for easy identification and then autonomously moves on to the next tree. This system allows growers and workers to quickly understand not just if a tree is infected, but exactly where and how much intervention is needed, provide better data for growers, and support a more stable, sustainable food supply. Thank you for watching.

[01:20:24][applause] Congratulations to the fire bllighters from Carnegie Melon.

[01:20:29]I think we have them on a video. Is that right?

[01:20:34]Y can hear us.

[01:20:38]Can you hear us guys?

[01:20:39]>> Yeah, we can hear you.

[01:20:42]>> All right. So, first of all, thank you very much. Uh this is very encouraging u and and honorable. I want to give a shout out to everybody involved in this team uh all the members of fireers, all the mentors. I also want to give shout out to our partners uh Carrie and from Penn State and Sir John from uh Virginia Tech. Um and last but not the least, our lab here at Canto Laboratory already happened. So again, thank you very much.

[01:21:07]Thank you guys.

[01:21:10][applause] So, now that we've concluded the 2026 challenge, we're already thinking about next year. So, what can you expect from Bonsai for 2027?

[01:21:31]Here we go.

[01:21:46]So in at now [clears throat] that this year's completed, we are introducing the brand new AmIGGA platform, the AmIGGA Flex powered by Bonsai intelligence. So this Omega Flex is a meaningful advancement versus the current Amigga that students are building on today. This allows uh students to take advantage of a more ruggedized uh system that has bonsai intelligence, our advanced autonomy stack incorporated within it. This platform is a commercially validated solution and includes capabilities capabilities like A2B path following, automated mission planning, vision first navigation, obstacle detection, obstacle avoidance, and more.

[01:22:32]Students will be able to leverage these capabilities as part of their projects, allowing them to focus more on the next generation applications utilizing a commercial-grade mobility platform, autonomous navigation technology stack as a foundation.

[01:22:49]We have a QR code up here. Feel free to check it out. Um, and uh provide information how to get access for this amigga as part of the challenge for next fall.

[01:23:03]So, congrats to all of this year's winners and to every student team that's participated. You're leaving the with valuable robotics and AI experience that this industry urgently needs and we can't wait to see what you build next year, in particular on the next generation platform, the AmIGGA Flex.

[01:23:23]Thank you all.

[01:23:26][applause] Thank you very much. And uh for those that aren't aware, there is an Amigga out front. You should go check it out.

[01:23:40]Um and and I'm excited to see the new version. Uh you know, I it makes me wish I could go back and start playing with robotics. But you know, we we keep moving on. I bet I'm not the only one in the audience feels that way.

[01:23:52]Before we move on to our next big announcement, let me plug and play.

[01:23:59]Plug. There we go. Plug and play. Let me thank Plug for having us here. We're in Sunnyvale at Plugandplay headquarters.

[01:24:07]Really, really appreciate them partnering and hosting and staying actively engaged with us and the teams all year long. We're very grateful for the opportunity you are offering the challenge team to share its pitch at a future event. We thank you for supporting their journey as well as everything else you've been doing for the Farm Robotics Challenge.

[01:24:32]Speaking of supporting journeys, please help me welcome our next presenter, innovation partner Danny Bernstein from Reservoir. Reservoir's new facilities are giving a tech and robotics startups real fields, real equipment, and real grower partners so they can prove out their technologies and reach the farm faster. Danny, thank you for backing these teams and for building the places where their dreams can take root.

[01:25:01][applause] All right. Hi everybody. Um, my name is Danny Bernie. I'm CEO of Reservoir. It's so exciting to be here and to be supporting uh this competition. I remember a few years ago when we first started to uh hear about this competition, people said to me, "Oh, this is a student competition." You know, like there there isn't really that investment readiness. And I actually a few people warned me that we shouldn't get involved yet as an investor because of a lack of readiness. And and I can say that that is just completely changed. Um, and it's so exciting to be able to be ing this as an investor uh in the context firm. So we're we're really excited to do this. So a little bit of how it's going to work because it's high stakes. So we participated as a judge. Uh we had a chance to review all of the uh applicants. We met sort of as an investment team and ran uh these uh submissions through kind of our typical technical diligence. We had people involved who uh you know are saying things and using acronyms that I personally don't understand. Uh but then we also looked at uh the uh readiness level of these uh particular uh initiatives, the space they're operating in. We compared that to some of the investment uh thesis areas that we have and and uh and also looked at is this team uh ready to start a company? Are they ready for that venture capital clock to start? uh it doesn't take away from any of these extraordinary projects but we were looking for that convergence of all these different things to be true which is a different lens than let's say u some of the other um uh uh awards um uh took it on. So, are we going to do a video first or am I going to announce the >> just keep So, what we're going to do, I just want to introduce a little bit about reservoir and talk about what we're looking for and thinking about.

[01:26:58]So, you've heard a little a few references to what we're doing here and there are a lot of friends in the Greer, so there's going to be a little bit of of uh you know, covering familiar territory. Um, Reservoir is trying to build a proving ground for rugged AI. We are at this moment in time when um a lot of uh uh sort of prognosticators around technology are saying that uh AI is eating software and so we have this incred innovation around software enabled hardware. Reservoir began to see that happening three years ago and began to work with partners like Western Growers and UCR and others to think about what would a modern proving ground look like for rugged AI. what if you were to imagine a startup incubator built from scratch using the principles of physical AI and a tech what would you do and that's what we built uh we think about uh technology through the a resiliency lens which considers three things basically economic resilience ecosystem resilience and environmental resilience and so that's also the lens to which we coach up companies we think are you economically viable are you viable from an ecosystem perspective and also Are you uh upholding environmental resiliency principles? We are 10 people now. Uh you can see my partner there, Matt Hoffman who runs our farms, Tim Ced, who runs our industry partnerships, but but there are a bunch of other folks now behind Reservoir. We call them reservoirians. And when we thought about building reservoir, we did this basically to address a real grower need, which is you have a young company that wants to get onto a real farm and they have a research farm where there's high stakes research occurring. there's a uh a production farm where of course there's high stakes production occurring but there wasn't that third type of farm where a startup could could be and do high stakes R&D and high stakes development and so that's really what we invented so today we have two active locations we have a third that's under development in the central valley and then we're also exploring u expansion opportunities throughout the American west we have this incredible new partnership with western growers a renewal that in a a a ecosystem of thousands of growers into our network.

[01:29:07]Of course, you know, the Driscolls and the Wonderfuls and the Taylor Farms, but this is also family, this is family farms. This is multigenerational farms.

[01:29:16]These are non-subsidized specialty crop growers that are really just trying to make ends meet. Um, we have now over 300 startups in our network.

[01:29:25]And one of the things you can observe from seeing a lot of these companies today is that most of them that we saw are actually doing R&D in specialty crops, which is extraordinary because specialty crops is actually the the minority of US acreage. It's only 4% of US acreage, but it's actually close to 50% of the US farm economy. And so we're excited to see all this innovation happening in Specialty. I told you a little bit about our locations. You'll find me most days in Selenus um but spending also quite a bit of time in in wine country. So if there are any startups here or researchers or friends or folks from UC who want to visit uh please get in touch. We work very closely with growers just like these teams have to define priorities to figure out what works and to then get them on the farm to testing. So we can basically hear from a company one day and have them testing in a real production environment the next day.

[01:30:18]That is our model. we can get them onto the farm immediately.

[01:30:22]And what's incredible about this particular competition this year with these hundred some odd applicants is that it's truly global. And one of the ways that we refer to tech is as diplomacy. Ag diplomacy. If we develop a solution and then export that solution to Australia, that creates bonds between the United States and Australia. If we bring in a technology from Italy, those things create bonds between our countries. So, we scout startups globally and we really support that global network. Here are a few of them.

[01:30:52]We have a um an automated celery harvester. We have a startup that's bringing UV light to pest control and strawberries. We have an electric weer.

[01:31:02]We have a sensors in the ground that are uh taking nitrogen uh uh sensor samples.

[01:31:07]We have all sorts of interesting technologies. A lot of them are chemical replacement technologies which we're really excited about. [snorts] Um we have startups that are there every day.

[01:31:16]This is Atom that you can see that they've actually fully moved in to Reservoir as their day-to-day office. If you go to Reservoir Farms in Selenus any given day, you'll see about six to eight startups working there every single day.

[01:31:28]So, we are an onfarmm startup incubator.

[01:31:30]It's a really fun place to be. That's our barn. Uh that is actual welding happening. We had our first full component built at Reservoir Farms. Our first sort of piece of heavy machinery built at Reservoir Farms recently as part of a steam fumigator. It's replacing the chemical processes associated with fumigation and it's using steam.

[01:31:51]We also are really committed to deep partnering in the communities just like UCNR. Uh we've been part of a very special and and hardworking and gritty consortium in the central valley uh that um is is trying to bring a version of reservoir to that region as well. and and we really care a lot about not just how we partner with ecosystem but also how the startups do as well. And that's it. So that's a little bit about reservoir.

[01:32:21][applause] Maybe we can bring that slide back up as well.

[01:32:30]Are we going to do the video or am I can just tell me about the sequencing, Kelly?

[01:32:34]>> Okay, great. So let me introduce this and then we'll go to video. So, this is all what you've been waiting for. Of course, this is the best picture award.

[01:32:41]Uh, you know, we're going to see, you know, Daniel D. Lewis just accepted the best actor award and Meil Street, you know, just wowed you for charisma and and depth. Um, so we're really excited to be sponsoring this. So, what are we actually doing? So, we have a venture capital fund that invests in early stage a tech startups that are building technology for resilience. We invest in rugged AI technologies. So after watching this project really closely after a few years being um a an investor in farmNG and now an investor in bonsai we've been able to watch this uh competition mature and mature to a state where the companies that are involved in this competition are actually investable. Meaning if we write a check to them we can start that venture capital clock. So, we will be making a $50,000 investment on a safe note, sort of an UNC a a unstructured sort of fast round that um early stage startups do so they don't have to go through all the paperwork and all those things. And we will make that announcement today and then put that company into diligence. And we've already done quite a bit of diligence.

[01:33:46]So, more than likely we're going to be investing $50,000 in that company. And another kind of is that that company will also brand.

[01:33:59]So that company will also be uh receiving AmIGGA Flex uh uh machines as well. So this company that's a $25,000 value. Did I just release the price by mistake? That's okay. All right. Okay.

[01:34:11]That's okay. All right. Um with a great margin. Uh obviously I'm just kidding.

[01:34:15]But um so they will be receiving essentially a $75,000 accelerant in addition to the other kinds of perks that they can get. And of course, we would love for them to be at Reservoir, spending their first year with us in in residency. And so without further ado, let's see that video.

[01:34:33]>> The challenge of weed control while starting a garden for my high school.

[01:34:36]What began as a vision for fresh food and hands-on agriculture quickly spent in the heat pulling weeds by hand to protect the plants we worked so hard to establish. After speaking with growers across the state, I realized this problem was not just unique my operation. It was one that the entire industry was still working to solve. Our team developed an autonomous datadriven electric weeding system for orchards and vineyards. Current commercial electric weeders can be expensive, energyintensive, and require an operator, which means that growers are still dependent on the labor they are trying to reduce. Our approach is different. Rather than using high power electricity to burn weeds, our system delivers short targeted electrical pulses designed to weed tissue while using far less energy. Just as importantly, we designed a system to be lower cost, not only compared to current commercial electric weeders, but also cost competitive with the chemical and mechanical methods that growers rely on today. To make that possible, our engineering team had to solve three major challenges. Navigating autonomously through orchards, reliably contacting weeds, and delivering an effective dose of electricity.

[01:35:46]>> So, the main focus was to make sure that one, we're getting enough contact time when we're actually electrocuting weeds.

[01:35:52]Um, and then two, making sure everything's rigid and able to fluidly move in and out in a simple manner. So, um, I need to think about mechanically, how are we able to make sure that we're able to to contact the weeds, um, and pass current through the weeds the entire time we're rolling along the orchard. I consider our system to be novel, uh, specifically in how we deliver our treatment. Our treatment is microshocks at high voltages, and it's also has that added on, uh, isolation from the ground. With our first prototype built, we are excited to take the next step from proof of concept to real world impact. This summer, through Cornell's hardware accelerator program, we will focus on testing the electrical and mechanical variables that matter most. From there, our next steps are to measure performance across different sites, develop modular designs for varied terrain and crop systems, and begin incorporating weed classification data to make treatment more targeted over time.

[01:36:49]So without further ado, uh please join me in congratulating Rootline Robotics from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Come on up, guys. [applause] Congratulations.

[01:37:15]>> All right. Thank you. so much, Danny.

[01:37:17]Uh, my name is Andrew and I study digital agriculture at Cornell. And just two days from now, I'm actually about to graduate. So, uh, it's really great to be here today. Thank you.

[01:37:27][applause] >> So, it's truly such an honor to be here today standing in front of you. Um, thank you to everyone who made this competition possible. So, the UC school system sponsors, judges, we really appreciate it. Um, and I'd also like to extend a thank you to Plug-and-Play for hosting this award ceremony. We really appreciate it. Uh before I move on, I'd like to recognize Dr. Khi and his two graduate students. Usama is here today as well as Dawood for providing us a lab to work in and for mentoring us throughout the process. So we're very appreciative of that. Uh four months ago, I actually approached the Aggrobotics lab with the vision to build the winning competition submission for the farm robotics challenge. And so as an apple grower in New York, uh weed management was the most obvious problem for us to tackle. And um after to control weeds. I wanted to really be able to leverage this solution um for a robotic system that is affordable, safe and practical for grower operations. And so as a team lead, I wrote a proposal uh recruited an undergraduate team and then after that you know it became sort of a single idea uh something that we were all working towards and all united uh to solve. And so basically with that in the three months we were able to connect with growers, investors, stakeholders across the ecosystem, design, build and test our solution and build a report and video uh all before the May 3rd deadline. And so this project started off as a undergraduate effort and it's become something much much more. And so I'd like to recognize uh Michael Nice here who is a junior electrical engineer as well as Natalia Kurts who is a freshman biological engineer. um you know they were instrumental to the success of our projects as well as the path forward for the design and commercialization of our products. And so we together were very motivated to move forward uh with reservoirs investment and collaboration uh to help reduce herbicide uh you know inputs to decrease labor dependence as well as increase the sustainability of weed operations. So if you're interested in building that future with us then we'd love to talk with you afterwards. Thank you very much. [applause] Uh I would just like to add a comment on behalf of the egg robotics lab uh specifically Dr. Manoj Khi. So uh we would like to extend uh our uh heartfelt graduation to uh the F FRC and all the related sponsors. We won a similar kind of small scale award for smart uh excellence award in 2024. At that time we were like oh it is just like something which is brought up in a research lab and it might not uh land somewhere but we kept on uh continuing to the efforts. We found a really uh energetic and uh I'd say promising team and finally we were able to get this award. Uh so thank you everyone for believing in us. My lab mates who are uh right now watching us from uh all the way to from east coast. So shout out to them. Agrootics lab, Dr. Manoj Khi and of course Cornell. Thank you so much.

[01:40:24]>> [applause] >> Wow.

[01:40:44]I don't know about the rest of you, but I just have to say, wow. These have been some amazing projects. and from student teams. I I think uh you heard earlier from Walt and Danny that early on people just weren't sure what the students were going to come up with, but now I think we see what they're really truly capable of. I want to thank everybody who's participated in this year's competition, but it's worth noting that next year's competition is slated to kick off uh with registration opening on August 3rd.

[01:41:18]So teams, start gearing up to participate. Sponsors, we'd love to hear from more sponsors if you'd like to get involved. Stay tuned to our website, sign up for our mailing list, or connect with us on LinkedIn or or come chat with us today. We'll be here a little bit longer.

[01:41:36]Um, also want to thank everyone behind the scenes who made today possible, especially our technical folks in the back, our video production, our staff teams. We really appreciate your hard work and bringing us all together and enabling this event today to happen not only here in Sunnyale, California, but to all the folks out there online who have been watching this. Thank you for joining us. Thank you to the folks in the audience and we will see you next year. Thanks. [applause] I would love the teams to join us over under that screen where we'll take some photo. So teams, come on up. Bring your cameras or whoever your official photographers are.