JM Innovations



National & World Ag News Headlines
Walmart Files Six Patents for AgTech Projects
USAgNet - 03/16/2018

Not to be outdone by Amazon, Walmart has rolled out a series of updates to its grocery business recently, including a partnership between its Sam's Club wing and Instacart, the acquisition of Parcel, and the recent announcement of its Eden technology, which could help save the giant retailer $2 billion in food waste costs over the next half-decade.

But as a new research brief from CB Insights points out, all these endeavors could benefit from Walmart's getting involved in the other end of its grocery store supply chain-that is, farming the crops that eventually wind up on its store shelves.

To that end, the retailer giant recently applied for a series of six patents aimed at farm automation.

These include an application that uses machine vision for identifying pests and monitoring crop damage, drones that shoot targeted sprays of pesticides instead of the usual cloud, and the "robot bee" patent, which would carry pollen from plant to plant. There's also potential for drones to act as the next generation of "scarecrows or shiny devices" to scare away hungry birds, according to the patent.


Other National Headlines
L&L Sales and Service
Kelly Manufacturing
Copyright © 2024 - Farms.com. All Rights Reserved.