The autonomous robotic platform Latvijas iDārzs (Latvian i-Garden) aims to contribute to a sustainable development of the plant nursery sector, by enabling plant monitoring and tending functions as well as automation and digitalisation of the production process.
Latvian i-Garden is located at the Bulduri Horticultural school and the Bulduri Biotechnological centre in Latvia and consists of a 2.5 acre territory with a wide diversity of horticulture vegetables, ornamental plants and fruit crops, about 800 varieties of perennials, annual vegetables, herbs and fruits. The solutions developed in the Latvian i-Garden will be applicable to monitoring, management and daily maintenance activities of nurseries, tree nurseries, as well as large gardens.
In order to ensure the applicability of the system in gardens and farms with high crop diversity, a systematic data collection and processing solution will be integrated in the Latvian i-Garden platform, which will use databases, machine learning and other artificial intelligence solutions to interpret the situation and make horticulture management decisions.
This solution, using various types of sensors and cameras, will allow collection, and analysis of real-time data on plants, as well as the development of an artificial intelligence solution to help make decisions on appropriate technological processes and activities.
Also, an information system of the most characteristic plants of Latvia’s climate and environment will be created, including information on their growth at different stages of development, characteristics and peculiarities, diseases, etc., which will form an essential part of the information system.
The Bulduri Horticultural school cooperates with Latvia University, Riga Technical University and University of Life science and Technology, as well as leading companies of the horticulture industry and societies of growers.
Contact person:
Anta Sparinska
anta.sparinska@gmail.com
Website:
Funding source: Rural development 2014-2020 for Operational Groups (in the sense of Art 56 of Reg 1305/2013), project number 18-00-A01612-000021