There’s a new member of the team at Niagara College’s Agriculture & Environmental Technologies Innovation Centre. It goes by the name RoamIO Jumbo, and it is an advanced, rugged land rover, able to patrol vineyard rows with ease, helping farmers increase profitability or even save their crop from damaging weather.
This new addition, along with a complement of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and modern high-performance computing, have joined the team thanks to $94,000 in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program. The grant was part of a national funding announcement made today from Minister of Science and Sport Kirsty Duncan at Niagara College’s Wine Visitor & Education Centre in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
“On campuses across the country, colleges are pursuing exciting research opportunities and at the same time helping companies enhance their products and processes, bringing promising ideas to the marketplace,” said the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport. “With research areas ranging from advanced manufacturing to artificial intelligence, the projects being funded today will have real-life benefits for all Canadians.”
The Applied Research Tools and Instruments (ARTI) program helps NC’s Research & Innovation division advance its precision agriculture strategies and collaborate with industry partners to help them farm smarter. Precision agriculture provides solutions to cut costs, increase productivity, and to support environmental stewardship; and it involves using modern hardware and data in support of farm management practices.
An important investment into this specialized equipment will enable current partnerships to advance significantly, and create opportunities for new collaborations, said Marc Nantel, PhD, associate vice-president, Research & Innovation.
“We are so pleased to get this money to help us help industry,” said Nantel. “Sophisticated technologies like these will allow our farming partners to optimize their processes and produce healthier crops.”
The College’s array of smart farming technologies help farmers better predict weather, generate accurate forecasts for regions as small as a single farm field – all in a day or two in advance of harmful events. This can be the difference between life and death for the crops.
Reliable forecasting of damaging conditions such as catastrophic killer frosts, high winds, continued drought, or other conditions that might hit the farm, gives the farmer the knowledge needed to engage the best mitigation strategy, said Mike Duncan, PhD, NSERC Industrial Research Chair for Colleges (IRCC) in Precision Agriculture & Environmental Technologies.
In particular, the RoamIO Jumbo will be outfitted with sensor capabilities to monitor weather and temperatures, and ultimately yield estimations in a vineyard. The smart land rover will also be equipped with cameras so it can be used to view the grape quantity, added Duncan.
The RoamIO Jumbo was developed by Korechi Inc., a robotics and automation company in Hamilton, founded by engineer Sougata Pahari.
“Korchechi was able to provide a fully customizable system,” said Duncan. “They are the perfect partner. [Pahari] understood exactly what needed to be customized, as well as what needed to be easily accessible to the students so they can pull apart the circuitry and program the thing.”
NC’s Agriculture & Environmental Technologies Innovation Centre team works with private and public sector partners to develop innovative solutions to address today’s challenges in precision agriculture, GIS, computer programming, sustainable food production, plant growth, horticultural practices, greenhouse operations, aquaponics, environmental management and renewable energies. For info visit www.ncinnovation.ca/specializations/agriculture-environmental-technologies-innovation-centre
View Minister’s Nov. 5. media release here.
Canadian ingenuity knows no bounds. Thank you for a wonderful showcase @niagaracollege! #CanadaSupportsScience #engineering #innovation
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L'ingéniosité canadienne ne connaît pas des limites. Merci pour une étalage formidable! t.co/QNlgyGmAwQ— Kirsty Duncan (@KirstyDuncanMP) November 5, 2018
Shout out to our amazing partner @SGTPahari of @KorechiInnov, an Ont. robotics SME, for building RoamIO Jumbo! And thanks to @NSERC_CRSNG & @KirstyDuncanMP #ncinnovation – in Photo: Sougata Pahari & Dr. Mike Duncan @niagaracollege pic.twitter.com/DhrxLY0O58
— Research & Innovation (@NCResearchInnov) November 5, 2018
twitter.com/kelly_byer/status/1059470513297412096
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- Minister Kirsty Duncan addresses the crowd in the Wine Visitor + Education Centre.
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- President Dan Patterson speaks as St. Catharines MP Chris Bittle and Minister Kirsty Duncan look on.
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- Research associate Arden Metcalfe-Roach, a recent Computer Programmer Analyst grad (2018) speaks about her work for NC’s Research & Innovation division.
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- Students gather around the minister and speakers following the Nov. 5 announcement.
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- From left, Arden Metcalfe-Roach (NC research associate), Gregor MacLean (NC research project manager), MP Chris Bittle, Minister Kirsty Duncan, President Dan Patterson, PhD, Marc Fortin, PhD (NSERC VP, Research Partnerships), Mike Duncan, PhD (NSERC,Industrial Research Chair for Colleges), and Andrew Nickel (NC research associate).
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- Research associate Andrew Nickel, recent Electronic Engineering grad (2017) demonstrates the new RoamIO in the vineyards.
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- From left: Andrew Nickel (research associate), Greg Medulun (NC VP External Relations), Chris Bittle (St. Catharines MP), Mike Duncan (NSERC Industrial Research Chair), Minister Kirsty Duncan, Arden Metcalfe-Roach (NC research associate), NC president Dan Patterson, Gregor MacLean (NC research project manager), Marc Fortin (NSERC VP Research Partnerships) and Del Rollo (senior director of Industry and Estates for Arterra Wines Canada and vice-chair for NC’s Board of Governors) gather in the vineyards with RoamIO.
