Goto

Collaborating Authors

 outfield


Drone lands in outfield at Wrigley Field, causing delay

FOX News

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Umpires hastily cleared the field during a game between the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night when a small drone flew into Wrigley Field over the bleachers and landed on the grass in deep left center. As Willson Contreras came to bat with two outs in the bottom of the fifth and the game tied at 2, the device was spotted over the left-center stands. Before the drone landed, umpires rushed players into the dugouts.


Predicting fruit harvest with drones and artificial intelligence

#artificialintelligence

Outfield Technologies is a Cambridge-based agri-tech start-up company which uses drones and artificial intelligence, to help fruit growers maximise their harvest from orchard crops. Outfield Technologies' founders Jim McDougall and Oli Hilbourne have been working with Ph.D. student Tom Roddick from the Department's Machine Intelligence Laboratory to develop their technology capabilities to be able to count the blossoms and apples on a tree via drones surveying enormous apple orchards. "An accurate assessment of the blossom or estimation of the harvest allows growers to be more productive, sustainable and environmentally friendly", explains Outfield's commercial director Jim McDougall. "Our aerial imagery analysis focuses on yield estimation and is really sought after internationally. One of the biggest problems we're facing in the fruit sector is accurate yield forecasting. This system has been developed with growers to plan labour, logistics and storage. It's needed throughout the industry, to plan marketing and distribution, and to ensure that there are always apples on the shelves. Estimates are currently made by growers, and they do an amazing job, but orchards are incredibly variable and estimates are often wrong by up to 20%. This results in lost income, inefficient operations and can result in substantial amount of wastage in unsold crop."