Our autonomous systems have completed over 50,000 operational hours across 150,000 acres in the US. By operating tractors precisely and remotely, we also are seeing improvements in worker safety, and exposure to hazardous materials and chemicals.
AI & Autonomous Solutions in Agriculture
Q&A with Ben Alfi, Founder and CEO | Bluewhite
Tell us about yourself and your role with Bluewhite.
Agriculture is the lifeblood of society – ensuring that people get what they need most, food to eat. After 25 years of military service, I was inspired to leverage my experience in advanced robotic systems to bring autonomous technology to an industry that needs it the most– agriculture. My partners and I recognized that agriculture is suffering from a multitude of challenges, including a labor crisis, ballooning operational costs, and environmental pressures that pose an existential threat to the global food supply. We wanted to create a next-generation solution to help mitigate these issues and created Bluewhite — the rest is history.
As Bluewhite’s CEO, my role is to help direct the company in our mission to disrupt agriculture and other sectors using autonomous innovation. As of today, we work with over 20 major US commercial growers, have raised over $100 million, and signed major manufacturing contracts with agriculture giants like CNH Industrial.
What is Bluewhite’s value proposition for growers?
Bluewhite provides a unique value proposition by equipping existing tractors with state-of-the-art autonomous technology. This enables growers to enhance productivity, improve quality and safety without the need for new, expensive equipment. Bluewhite's solution integrates hardware and software into a single cohesive system for comprehensive remote fleet management.
Our hardware solution Pathfinder can be installed on any tractor and utilizes computer vision, AI, and smart implement integration capabilities to autonomously perform tasks such as spraying, spreading, mowing and more. This allows growers to enhance productivity by reallocating their limited workforce to higher-value tasks, such as farm management, oversight, and skilled roles needing technical expertise that often require human decision-making.
This approach significantly reduces labor costs and chemical usage, ultimately cutting overall production costs while increasing total efficiency through data-driven operations planning. By minimizing required inputs, material waste and downtime, autonomous agriculture offers a vital solution for boosting productivity and profits, thus strengthening the global food supply and supporting the financial sustainability of the agricultural sector as a whole.
How do autonomous operations stand to revolutionize today’s agricultural sector?
Autonomous operations are set to revolutionize agriculture by tackling critical challenges like labor shortages, rising costs, and environmental concerns. Bluewhite's technology automates labor-intensive tasks, such as planting and crop maintenance, allowing workers to focus on higher-value activities like farm management and maintenance resulting in significant cost savings, including a reduction of labor costs by 40-50%, and increased yields. Our autonomous system intuitively limits the output of chemicals based on smart sensor technology, and is capable of automating routine and consistent tasks that are time-consuming but not complicated, like seeding or weeding.
By reducing required inputs to produce food, Bluewhite supports a more sustainable, efficient, and resilient agricultural sector allowing the farm to function round-the-clock.
What are some ways Bluewhite is already seeing the impact of their technology?
Bluewhite's technology is making waves in the agricultural sector, especially for permanent crop growers. Our autonomous systems have completed over 50,000 operational hours across 150,000 acres in the US. By operating tractors precisely and remotely, we also are seeing improvements in worker safety, and exposure to hazardous materials and chemicals.
How does Bluewhite’s solution leverage AI?
Bluewhite harnesses the power of AI to deliver advanced autonomous farming capabilities. Pathfinder, our hardware solution, uses AI, computer vision, and sensor fusion (LiDAR, cameras, GNSS) to navigate and perform tasks autonomously, even in GPS-denied environments. The platform’s software component, Compass, collects and analyzes field data with advanced AI algorithms, offering growers interactive reports to offer insights on both the quality of their yields as well as the maintenance needs and efficiency indicators of their equipment. This allows them to monitor farm operations remotely and make data-driven decisions that maximize resource allocation, improve efficiency, and increase productivity through optimized path planning and overall operations.
What are some exciting milestones from Bluewhite in the last year?
This past year has been an incredible one for Bluewhite. We successfully closed our most recent funding round, raising $39 million to further scale our autonomous farming solutions and expand into new markets. We're now working with many of the largest leading permanent crop growers and gaining global recognition for our top-class autonomous solutions, like Bluespray’s ‘top product’ recognition at World Ag Expo 2024. Additionally, we signed a major OEM agreement with CNH Industrial to manufacture and distribute autonomous solutions for New Holland tractors. This strategic agreement marks a major leap forward to benefit both individual growers and the sector’s transition to next-gen practices, enabling broader adoption of our technology immediately to meet the demands of today’s agricultural ecosystem. These milestones highlight our commitment to driving innovation and sustainability in agriculture.
Given Bluewhite’s recent announcement with CNH Industrial, what can we expect from this strategic partnership?
Our partnership with CNH Industrial offers vital solutions to address critical labor gaps through advanced autonomous technology. We’ve already begun working with New Holland dealers to distribute our autonomous solutions, with plans for broader regional and global expansion. This multi-year, multi-phase partnership includes a strategic investment by CNH, signaling strong industry validation and a seal of approval from one of the world’s most respected OEMs. Growers can look forward to enhanced access to our advanced autonomous technology, enabling them to scale operations and significantly boost productivity from day one, as Bluewhite’s retrofitted robotics kit only takes a single day to install – enabling growers’ transition from traditional to autonomous farming faster than ever before. These strategic partnerships both foster a sense of fellowship and are part of Bluewhite’s efforts to expedite the proliferation of autonomous technology to a variety of sectors by offering best in class, rapidly scalable solutions for dealers and manufacturers.
What can we expect from Bluewhite in the next few years?
Over the coming years, we plan to forge new distribution paths to make this technology more and more accessible as well as improving ease of use through increased R&D by advancing the back-end capabilities of the offering to overcome new challenges in agriculture. To realize this vision, and in accordance with our belief in working together with other agricultural players to build a better industry for all, we look forward to partnering with more sector stakeholders, such as dealerships, growers, manufacturers and more to expand our solution’s application from our existing retrofitted technology to also offer integrated manufacturing solutions. We're also committed to supporting diverse crop types and farming conditions, ensuring optimal performance and continuous operation. Our broader vision is to transform agriculture into a tech-centric industry, capable of meeting modern challenges and ensuring food security for future generations.
Ben Alfi, Founder and CEO of Bluewhite, has leveraged a 25-year career in the Israeli Air Force, where he served as a combat pilot and Head of Unmanned Systems R&D Programs. Alfi brings extensive expertise in deploying autonomous systems on a large scale, leading product innovation, and ensuring robust financial management. In addition, he sets and executes the company's strategic direction, ensuring alignment with the company's mission and values. Ben is proficient in building client, partner, and stakeholder relationships while fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning.
Ben Alfi founded various successful startups and has dedicated over 6 years to promoting Israel’s startup ecosystem.
Ben holds a BA in Business Management, an LLB in Law, and an LLM in Law, International Business Major.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of RoboticsTomorrow
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