A new research Hub has been launched to increase farm production and disease prevention by using artificial intelligence and machine vision technologies to improve product quality control.
The ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Driving Farming Productivity and Disease Prevention has been funded with $5 million over five years by the Australian Government, through the ARC.
Opening the new Research Hub at Griffith University, Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General, Assistant Minister for Industrial Relations and Assistant Minister for Women, Queensland LNP Senator Amanda Stoker said that machine vision is central to the Hub’s work, which has the potential to not only significantly reduce labour costs, but also provide stability to an industry that relies heavily on seasonal labour.
“Machine vision provides an affordable, objective, and reliable method of performing quality control over agricultural products,” said Senator Stoker.
“This allows producers and retailers the confidence that their products are of the highest possible quality and free from defects and contamination from foreign objects.
“In many cases machine vision can detect defects in fruit that are undetectable by human observers, for example bruising in strawberries.”
Based at Griffith University, the Research Hub draws together funding and close collaboration from five other Australian universities and five partner organisations, as well as the CSIRO.
