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Get them answered by the team at Bayer Crop Science.
Background
Bayer Crop Science is seeking partners from academic or corporate settings to develop innovative solutions for real-time, remote monitoring of greenhouse spaces.
We are specifically looking for an imaging system sophisticated enough to take a digital snapshot of the greenhouse, enabling remote and data-driven decisions on aspects such as plant status, development, and space occupancy. Ideally, the system would utilize low-resolution technology to ensure cost-effectiveness and scalability. In addition, this system would include an automated feature that allows personnel to quickly identify and prioritize spaces that need immediate attention, thus enhancing overall greenhouse management.
This initiative aligns with our commitment to sustainable agriculture and operational efficiency, as it has direct implications in resource utilization and health and productivity of plants within our greenhouses.
What we're looking for
We are looking for an innovative, low-cost imaging and monitoring system for greenhouses. This system should enable real-time, remote observation of greenhouse conditions to assist in managing plant health, development, and space occupancy. The ideal solution should ultimately be equipped with automation features to evaluate the overall status of the plants in the greenhouse continuously, prioritizing areas that require immediate attention and providing alerts for critical situations.
Our must-have requirements are:
- Can be adapted to work in various greenhouse/glasshouse settings.
- A system that uses data driven decision-making to assess current plant state within a greenhouse.
- Must meet personnel safety and privacy requirements for the Bayer site(s).
- Data output needs to be part of an easily accessible and interpreted user interface. Data dashboards, for example.
Our nice-to-have's are:
- Requires minimal custom design/layout of the plants in the greenhouse.
- Preference for low-cost image technology.
- Dashboard output automatically prioritizes critical greenhouse and plant state situations and alerts users.
What's out of scope:
- Proprietary and extremely high-resolution options currently available commercially.
Acceptable technology readiness levels (TRL):
Levels 3-9
What we can offer you
Eligible partnership models:
Sponsored research
Co-development
Supply/purchase
Licensing
Material transfer
Benefits:
Sponsored Research
Up to $100,000 for a proof-of-concept, with additional potential funding for further development.Expertise
To aid any potential project, we can offer expertise in plant growth and care and in controlled environment systems.Facilities and Services
Utilizing Bayer greenhouse facilities to test ideas and solutions.Who we are
Bayer’s vision of #HealthForAll, #HungerForNone drives our need to strengthen innovation capabilities in all areas of agriculture. We know we can’t accomplish this alone, so we're always interested to hear about novel, early-stage scientific innovations that can contribute to feeding the world without starving the planet. You have our commitment to take a look, match with our R&D priorities and provide you timely feedback.
Learn moreReviewers
VH
Verena Herrmann
Innovation Scout
PT
Phil Taylor
Director of Open Innovation & Outreach
DR
Dan Ruzicka
Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding
Q&A with Bayer Crop Science
The Q&A is now closed.
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Most upvoted
Q.
Are you open to a sensor/Internet of Things based approach versus computer vision/cameras? This approach is much more cost effective and in many cases much more accurate and easier to work with than camera based imaging.
JR
May 2, 2024
5
A.
yes, we would be open to sensors and IoT solutions.
DR
Dan Ruzicka, Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding, Bayer Crop Science
May 9, 2024
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0
0
Q.
Will this method be designed only for greenhouse/glasshouse? If for greenhouse/glasshouse, I think on-size camera will be enough. The UAV/drone application is for broad field application.
JH
May 2, 2024
2
A.
This will be used in greenhouse/glasshouse applications, so a stationary system is preferred over a UAV type application.
DR
Dan Ruzicka, Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding, Bayer Crop Science
May 9, 2024
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0
0
Q.
What exactly is considered a low-cost solution? Would for example a network of cameras each costing $1000-2000 be too expensive?
2
A.
We anticipate deploying an acceptable solution to more than 60 greenhouse compartments and more than 150 growth chamber compartments. Individual camera costs of $1000-2000 would not allow scalability for this project. $500-$1000 might be scalable as there likely will be more than 1 camera per greenhouse zone to cover the area sufficiently if the cameras are a fixed location. If cameras are mobile then individual camera cost could be higher.
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 25, 2024
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0
0
Q.
Can you elaborate on what the commercial expectations would be if the funding is awarded? For example, if our researcher is awarded, would we be able to retain the right to commercialize the system outside of Bayer?
IP
Ilya Pittel, Tech Transfer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
June 3, 2024
2
A.
Thanks for the question. I would say that all would be up for discussion/negotiation as we move forward.
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 5, 2024
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0
0
Q.
What kind of plants are in the greenhouse? Are they small, like lettuce (better to see it from the top), or bigger, like tomatoes (better to look at it from the side)?
1
A.
The greenhouses are primarily used for corn and soybean.
DR
Dan Ruzicka, Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding, Bayer Crop Science
May 30, 2024
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0
0
Q.
Do you have some data collected already? Can you share them?
1
A.
If discussions with RFP submitters advance to confidential discussions, we can share necessary information about data that we collect (or could collect). If we advance to a prototyping or proof of concept phase, we are open to an arrangement where certain Bayer data can be shared to enable the project.
DR
Dan Ruzicka, Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding, Bayer Crop Science
May 30, 2024
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0
0
Q.
What are the acceptable ranges for sensor accuracy and camera resolution to ensure the data is useful?
1
A.
Sensor accuracy needs to be +/- 5%. Camera resolution is flexible. Resolution of camera needs to be enough to identify individual plants, items, and color differences of plan leaves. We do not need resolution at the cm2 level for plant canopy.
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 25, 2024
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0
0
Q.
How critical is the response time for alerts, and what kind of actions are expected to follow these alerts?
1
A.
Our greenhouse team regularly physically checks the greenhouse every 2-4 hours depending on age of plant, study type, etc. so they would most likely check a dashboard at the most every two hours. However, if there is an urgent need for them to go in the greenhouse sooner like a plant is not receiving water, we would like to know of that as soon as possible so they can spot check that growth space. I would say in that case we would like to know within at least 5 minutes of the incident happening. In general, images captured every 30 minutes to hour should meet needs. Software capability to identify mechanical issues, plant location changes, or non-critical environmental issues that push information to users within 30 minutes of incident are acceptable. Action would be to correct the mechanical issue or reset environmental conditions to divert significant risk to facility or plants within the facility.
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 25, 2024
Is this response helpful?
1
0
Q.
What specific data points and metrics are most critical to display on the dashboard? Are there any existing dashboards or interfaces that the team prefers or is accustomed to using?
1
A.
Water status of the plant, plant count (measure of plant density), disease status of a plant at a high level (if a cob is moldy/has smut), nice to have would be insect monitoring/count for IPM practices. The dashboard envisioned here would be more related to issues detected from the images. Significant density change in space, Plant stage of development (Maybe just area of space covered by canopy is sufficient), Plant health status (presence of disease, insects, lack of water, etc…), major mechanical failure/issue (broken irrigation pipe, water on the floor when not expected, …)
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 25, 2024
Is this response helpful?
1
0
Q.
What types of custom reports or data exports are needed?
1
A.
Water status of the plant, plant count (measure of plant density), disease status of a plant at a high level (if a cob is moldy/has smut), nice to have would be insect monitoring/count for IPM practices (Daniel will probably have some more specifics in mind).
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 25, 2024
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1
0
Q.
What are the geographical regions we are targeting? What are the crops of interest?
HB
June 14, 2024
1
A.
We are targeting the Chesterfield, Missouri growth spaces and the main crops of interest would be corn, soy, cotton, and canola. We do have some minor crops we work with like wheat, Arabidopsis, lettuce, and tobacco that also could come up as needing imaged.
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 25, 2024
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0
0
Q.
Are we expected to integrate with some available sensing infrastructure (for imaging and ambient conditions) within the greenhouse? Are there any speciifics or specifications we should be aware of?
HB
June 14, 2024
1
A.
ARGUS is our environmental control software that monitors and controls all of our greenhouse spaces. This information may be integrated with the image data for a complete dashboard.
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 25, 2024
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0
0
Q.
What would be the role of ground staff in the greenhouse in terms of data contribution? Could their devices be used for gathering any relevant data?
HB
June 14, 2024
1
A.
We had in mind more of a monitoring system that they can check and the user interface would flag if something is wrong and pinpoint that particular growth space that they can physically check. So there is currently no on person data collection devices. All data collection devices are permanently located in each greenhouse space. Wearables are not easily integrated into our day to day logistics or location mapping; however, this innovation should not be excluded as an opportunity for this POC.
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 25, 2024
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0
0
Q.
Are the greenhouses hydroponic or classical?
1
A.
The plants are primarily grown in pots containing potting mix.
DR
Dan Ruzicka, Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding, Bayer Crop Science
May 30, 2024
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0
0
Q.
Would Bayer provide the required public cloud subscription (AWS) and resources to perform the PoC?
1
A.
Thanks for the question. Details like that will be worked out depending on which project(s) are moved forward and what the needs are.
PT
Phil Taylor, Director of Open Innovation & Outreach, Bayer Crop Science
June 27, 2024
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0
0
Q.
Hi, I work in fabrication of different gas sensors especially greenhouse gases monitoring such as CO2 and Methane. Are you interested in implementing these sensors?
1
A.
we are currently focusing on sensors that can detect the status of plants (whether visual or otherwise). Gas sensors could be part of this solution if they are already linked (via modeling for example) to plant responses, but we are not interested in atmosphere gas monitoring alone.
DR
Dan Ruzicka, Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding, Bayer Crop Science
May 30, 2024
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0
0
Q.
What are the typical dimensions of the greenhouses?
1
A.
This varies as we have a variety of houses and also large indoor chambers. If your solutions have dimension constraints, please note it in the application and we can discuss further.
DR
Dan Ruzicka, Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding, Bayer Crop Science
May 30, 2024
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0
0
Q.
What are the lighting conditions inside the greenhouse - will there always be lights on?
1
A.
The greenhouses have a mix of natural lighting and various artificial lights (LED, high pressure sodium, and/or metal halide). Ideally the solution can be adapted to different set ups.
DR
Dan Ruzicka, Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding, Bayer Crop Science
May 30, 2024
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