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Quarterly Round Up

In what has been a challenging few months for us all, Hummingbird Technologies are proud to have adapted to the new way of working and have been working harder than ever to ensure our technology meets the demands of the changing global situation, whilst ensuring that it is fully accessible to our clients.

Our global teams have also been busy innovating and piloting new projects, as well as giving our website a fresh new look.

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PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENTS

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Original Article on ESA Space Solutions

When SME Hummingbird was created in 2016, it had a clear mission: “Measure sustainability, optimise food production and push the boundaries of science and technology through sophisticated modelling and predictive analytics”. Through ‘Project Hawking’ with its remote sensing platform, Hummingbird is now solving challenges in yield losses, inefficient inputs, unsustainable practices and poor decision making.

Before Project Hawking, Hummingbird Technologies Ltd., an artificial intelligence (AI) business based in London, were identifying crop health issues and forecasting the occurrence of possible diseases and weed pressures in the field by using UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) imagery processed by its AI algorithms. This imagery was also used to produce variable rate fertiliser and other chemical application maps.

Ingenuity struck with Project Hawking, a collaboration funded and supported by ESA Space Solutions, where Hummingbird started adding satellite observation points throughout the growing season to the process. Hummingbird was now able to build an extensive time series of data to apply its proprietary machine learning techniques..

The added dimension of satellite data

This deep, new layer of intelligence complemented the existing UAV platform, enabling increased accurately geo-referenced UAV and ground truthed (information gained via direct observation rather than inference) captured imagery during the image acquisition.

“The first step was for Hummingbird to build the system architecture necessary to process satellite data from ESA as well as other higher resolution commercial imagery,” says Olivier Becu, Technical Officer at ESA. “Next they needed to adapt their existing front-end to display the generated high-value information to customers”.

Hummingbird started to train AI algorithms with the thousands of satellite images they collected and matched with existing datasets. The aim was to develop a processing chain delivering satellite-derived vegetation index maps. Data and imagery were collected from the various satellite providers and processed using the platform, with analysis of crop health, yield and rate of change provided. This included vital data such as the identification of disease and disease prevalence as well as soil type mapping by reflectance data.

With Hummingbird’s Crop Identification tool, you can determine the planted area of Canola, Cereals, Pulses and Maize / Soybean in-season. (Image credit: Hummingbird Technologies Ltd.)“Project Hawking cuts farm costs and improves yields by using satellite data to provide predictions in macro analytics and targeted agro-chemical applications, with the aim of reducing blanket agrochemical input. This reduces the negative environmental effects of agrochemical overuse, promotes responsible stewardship, and reduces the natural resistance build-up in crop diseases,” Alexander Jevons, Hummingbird Technologies Ltd.

In a matter of months, Hummingbird was set up with multiple satellite data sources delivering timely optical measurements and radar data at various geographical resolutions. Over the course of 2019, Hummingbird made its AI/satellite derived maps available to a set of trial users as part of a pilot project. This project involved large farm management company Velcourt and Cranfield University for scientific support.

The fruit of this pilot was a freemium satellite offering that gives users access to basic satellite analysis with the ability to upsell higher resolution analysis where needed. By the end of 2019, more than 5000 farmers across the world had requested access to the data. Many of these farmers have now subscribed to the commercially available Hawking service.

For almost all of the stages of crop development, Hummingbird can support the farmers to achieve more with less: seeding, fertilising, treating and forecasting yield for all major crops. Hummingbird has now launched commercial operations in Ukraine and Russia, Australia, Brazil and North America.

“As a result of Project Hawking and ESA funding Hummingbird has conducted a successful raise of £8.2m and grown the company to over 60 people globally with three international subsidiaries,” Alexander Jevons, Hummingbird Technologies Ltd.

ESA Space Solutions

ESA Space Solutions aims at reaching commercial exploitation of space assets, data and capabilities addressing incubation, proving technical feasibility and business development. This includes the development of operational services for a wide range of users through the combination of different systems, and support in creating viable companies as well as to existing companies.

Our CEO and Founder Will Wells, was recently interviewed by Hannah MacInnes on The Klosters Forum Feed & Flourish Podcast series, to discuss the topic of biodiversity and ways in which we can transform our food systems in order to positively preserve our planet.

As a business, we are 100% committed to creating sustainable food sources by using technology whilst ensuring the agricultural community can maintain higher yields.

Will discusses how Biodiversity is directly likened with soil health, and that to achieve this you need to grow different types of crop together to combine that with trees and livestock, along with how technology can help solve the mismatch that occurs in the supply chain when farmers are trying to meet those needs.

LISTEN AGAIN HERE

Checking every inch of your potato fields isn’t an easy task, but precision agriculture company Hummingbird Technologies is trying to make it easier.

By Ashley Robinson on May 25, 2020

Original Article on Spudsmart

If you stand at the edge of a potato field, you’ll only see a small sampling of plants. If you start walking across it, you’ll be slowed by the potato hills. Overall, it’s not the easiest process. Drones and satellites however can see the whole field, which is what Hummingbird Technologies is using to help potato growers monitor their fields.

“It’s fair to say it’s early days, but not many other businesses are offering this type of tool that we’re aware of,” Jeff Goulding, Hummingbird’s United Kingdom business development manager, says in a Google Hangouts interview. “I think the market is fairly open… precision farming in potatoes is a new area.”

The UK—based precision agriculture company launched in Canada in January and offers a full slate of products for various crops including potatoes. Hummingbird collects information about fields from drones and satellites, the information is then presented through their web and ap-based platforms to growers who can integrate the information with other technology on their machinery.

Precision agriculture products have been gaining in popularity over the last decade with many start-ups launching and larger companies developing their own products. The products are designed to save producers time and money by monitoring their crops remotely, but also give industry a better understanding of how crops are doing and assist agronomists in their work.

“We’re not looking to replace agronomists. In many ways’ agronomists are irreplaceable, but we’re looking to support their role and make them more efficient,” Goulding says.

“Farmers will typically know how many tubers per acre they’ve planted almost to the exact number, but they will not know how many tubers have emerged. And if there’s a huge difference then there is an issue that needs to be addressed,” Goulding explains.

They can also measure canopy development by monitoring the rate of emergence and the time it takes for the canopy to develop. If done regularly it can then be fed into a potato yield monitor.

Hummingbird can also help with desiccation — they can look at how much green material is left in the canopy to help farmers develop a spot spraying or variable rate application plan.

“This is all about managing the canopy. Trying to get an even canopy and making sure you’re not over fertilizing the crop — which means it’s going to stay green for too long and then you’re having to spend a lot of money trying to kill it,” says Goulding.

Another less used Hummingbird product for potato growers is weed detection, Goulding says. Once the crop has emerged, they can take an image of the crop and mask out the crop, leaving only the weeds and then create a variable rate herbicide plan to spray for.

Growers in the UK using Hummingbird’s potato products have found they’re able to be more targeted with their crop inputs, saving themselves time and money.

“Having remote data to support them in their field scouting and making sure they’re not missing any problems — there’s significant value in that,” Goulding says, adding growers have found they’re able to keep easier track of diseases in their crops.

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Not Just for Growers

Hummingbird doesn’t just provide information to growers — they also work with processors who use them for regional yield prediction.

“In other words, how are my growers’ crops… am I going to have enough raw material coming into my factory? That’s all they want to know really at the end of the day,” Goulding says.

Hummingbird has yet to sign any contracts with processors for yield monitoring in Canada, but they are working on it. Globally they work with PepsiCo in Brazil and Australia, and Lamb Weston in the UK.