Trialing the precision sprayer with just green detection. Aligning the detection and actuation is definitely a challenge. #agsky

Passes the beer test #agsky

The VegOWL setup done just in time for a trip to Australia for EvokeAg #agsky

Almost 30 FPS on a Raspberry Pi 5, overclocked to 2.6MHz running a YOLO26n segmentation models combined with a green detection model. No extra hardware. Logic is to run low res neural net to reliably detect the crop and then the green detection for the weeds. That framerate though is wild.

Almost done, 16 channel water cooled OWL. Plan is to overclock the pi along the lines of @jeffgeerling.com did and run some lightweight segmentation models at ~10FPS. What could go wrong

The first of two 16 channel OWLs actuating 16 diesel injectors for 2.5cm spray resolution in vegetables. Received a very expensive quote from LCSC for two of the looms, so opted to do it myself with some regrets. #agsky

I swear this passage must have come down from Mount Sinai on a stone fucking tablet: "Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS....blah blah tested for normality...blah blah if data were parametric...blah non-parametric...blah anova...blah post-hoc...significance was defined as p <0.05"

First look at the new custom enclosures for the OpenWeedLocator. A few cosmetic changes likely, but cool to see it in person. Much better than on a 3D model! community.openweedlocator.org/t/owl3-0-pre...

Exciting to see the new OWL board + enclosure come together. A single CM5 board, DT plug, NB IoT for comms, GNSS, M.2 slot for an SSD/Hailo AI chip. Check out the discussion here: community.openweedlocator.org/t/owl3-0-pre... #agsky #opensource #raspberrypi

Launched the new OpenWeedLocator Community page as a go to place for discussing the project/precision weed control. Here you can see a collection of some of the 23 unique builds I've come across over the years. #agsky

A group dedicated to Australian grain farming created more than a decade ago has just cracked 100,000 followers with about 20,000 people following from overseas.

Set up a new experiment trying to understand AI mimicry in ryegrass and the impact of mimicry on competitive ability of the plants. So we compete mimetic/non mimetic individuals against each other and wheat and see who wins. #agsky

"if you don't have to work at getting the knowledge, it won't stick" This is the single most important, yet most frequently ignored, fact about teaching and learning.

Sugar beet has not been grown in Australia for almost a century, but as the need for sustainable aviation fuels intensifies, the traditionally European crop could be making a paddock comeback.

Office view for the day while testing the OWL

#Agrivoltaics moving into the mainstream in #Italy Would be good to see some horticultural production in the mix, beyond sheep. Italy awards 2 GW in agrivoltaic tender backed by #EU funds. #agsky #energysky www.pv-magazine.com/2025/11/12/i...

Making the most of the trail running while in Spain

The Nats have officially scrapped net zero as of Sunday, so I figured, why not call seven farmers under 40 to ask them what they think about the policy shift? Their considered and interesting answers below 👇 www.theland.com.au/story/9105049/ #AgSky #AusAg

So exciting to finally get this in a cab and running. It's been a long-held goal to get a proper OWL controller working that ran over a network and could scale, instead of just GPIO based. #agsky

A long time coming - but a true networked, MQTT-based controller for an OWL boom. Manage as many OWLs as your network can handle, remotely. #agsky

An OWL set up for weed detection and spot spraying trials on an Amiga robot by Texas A&M PhD students Bholu and Vijai. First of its kind on this robotic platform #opensource #agsky

Please pass along, I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab @uofa-eeb.bsky.social We study phys ecology, macroecology, biodiversity - spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested🧪🌐🌾

First up is AI-based weed detection for precision agriculture: OpenWeedLocator presented by @geezacoleman.bsky.social Check out all the details 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Photoshoot time. Highest mimetic vs. least mimetic individuals pretty distinct. #agsky #science

Today, I have been working on a controller for the Giant Unicorn Hat. Have written a function to move the powered fadder to a set position, using a @pimoroni.com motor 2040, running CircuitPython to monitor/control the faders and the NeoTreilis. #GiganticUnicorn

Every plant imaged three times over three days to get a mean model prediction. Using a Sony Alpha A7IV for imaging. Would absolutely automate this for a future experiment... #agsky

Differences between the third generation of high and low wheat similarity ryegrass are pretty clear through the camera lens. So much more reflective leaf surface facing the camera, compared to the wheat-mimetic. All 3 selections made by a wheat-ryegrass classification algorithm. No human input.

Looks very pretty with the randomised design and colourful labels now. First time seeing the F3 high similarity population - exciting times

The final 720 pots in a three year experiment. Can weeds evolve to avoid being detected by cameras?

Pretty cool to see targeted steam/hot water applications using presumedly WeedITs or similar here in 🇩🇰. Have oversaturated the photo so the blue line is more obvious. Very compact machine. #agsky

Come work with us at the University of Copenhagen on image recognition problems in agriculture! Some really interesting projects that go across institutions and borders. employment.ku.dk/phd/?show=16...

The opening of the Kimberley Cotton Gin means growers will no longer need to transport their cotton more than 3,500 kilometres to Queensland for processing.

Hard at work hardfacing our points and leading edges! 💪 Our robots ensure top-quality results, so you get the best performance every time. #AgSky

Finally got the MQTT-based operation of the OWL to some form of usefulness. Only takes two lines to set the whole thing up: git clone bash owl_setup.sh The interface lets you monitor, control and download data to check its quality.

Just launched the new WeedAI web app! Check it out here: weedai.app Visualise the 400k+ annotations on over 41k images from around the world. Anyone can add data too - upload your dataset and fill in the gaps on the map.

The red meat industry is walking away from its goal of being carbon neutral by 2030. It’ll be replaced by a methodology that will take a year to develop. The Red Meat Advisory Council, government and Farmers for Climate Action give their thoughts. Listen: 👇🎧 www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

It's weirdly nostalgic finding a @raspberrypi.com 3B+ from 2018 with my very early days Python code on it. self.self = self I guess? This Pi will never be updated.

An OWL building workshop with 11 farmers from Western Aus! Lots of great feedback on the build process.

Set up a 16 channel laser demo for the OpenWeedLocator using the new 16 channel control board. Plan is to make precision weed control in horticulture more accessible.

I have probably committed some wiring sins here, but finished up the OWL Box. 50A across 12 channels, each to an OWL. 50A contactor, plus an EN channel to each OWL driver board to disable all outputs as a hardware-based control. Can controller connected at the base.

TANK vs TESLA "We've crushed fascism before and we'll crush it again" - ⁠WW2 veteran Ken, 98, in the tank

A moderately complete design for a screen-based cab controller for the OWL. The Pi inside will connect over wifi to manage connected OWLs via MQTT. Using the 7 inch @raspberrypi.com touch screen 2. #agsky

"I understand the struggles of renters. I talk to them regularly when I raise their rents." said Hamer. Full article here: chaser.com.au/national/ame...

Hi Bluesky 👋 ! The Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS) promotes #PlantScience in Australia, and provides professional contact within our community. Tag us using #plants #ozplants

University of OWLs almost ready to take flight onto the sprayer #agsky

The new 16 channel OWL driver board for precision application over some drinks. Now for the enclosure/designs! paradar.co.uk/products/owl... #agsky

For my first-ever bsky post, I’m thrilled to share our latest #ancientDNA research, which I co-led with @jessthorpemas.bsky.social OA: doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf065 We recovered and analysed mitochondrial genomes from many #mammoths spanning the last million years 🦣🧬⌛ Check this 🧵 we wrote ⬇️

There's a terrific article on cold-adapted photosynthesis here (doubtless the other articles are equally good, but chilly thylakoids are my thing). Open access!

A full tutorial on image data collection, annotation and upload to WeedAI. Help build large-scale open source image datasets for agriculture! youtu.be/Lf63QxucgCk?...