Blue-River - Spray Machine
See & Spray is a solution for farmers seeking a path forward to care for individual plants in a way that is sustainable for the environment and their farm as a business.
Farmers must protect their growing crops throughout the season from aggressive weeds. Crops need space, access to sunlight and key nutrients to thrive. A farmer’s first line of defense against weeds is chemicals. But unfortunately today, application technology sprays the entire field instead of just the weeds.
Blue River Technology’s solution leverages deep learning algorithms paired with a computer vision system to create the ultimate virtual field scout for agriculture. Through 5+ years of collecting millions of images of plants and weeds across hundreds of thousands of acres, See & Spray™ is capable of detecting a variety of crops and weeds to provide weed control throughout a growing season.
And in 2020, we proved Blue River’s See & Spray™ Technology is viable on farmers’ preferred application vehicle – a self propelled sprayer. Now in 2021, we will continue to test the system with a target of offering this to all growers.
Don’t like seeing weeds – we take pride in clean fields – it’s a reflection on our management,” said Indiana soybean, corn and wheat grower.
“The more I learn about soils, I’m uncertain about what effect the chemical is having on our soil chemistry. So, I am excited about See & Spray™,” said Nebraska soybean and corn grower.
“We are spending over $100/ac on weed control, we need a different solution,” said Georgia cotton and peanut grower.
In 2021, we showed the world our vision for application technology – enabling John Deere’s powerful R-series sprayers with See & Spray™ technology.
John Deere first announced See & Spray™ as the future of application technology through displays next to a 120-foot sprayer spanning across a booth at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Building on the vision from our founders – to solve monumental challenges in agriculture with technology – we believe in creating end-to-end products. Combining decades of agriculture industry knowledge with deep expertise in enabling technologies, our focus is delivering products that enable customers to work efficiently, sustainably and profitably.
Pioneering Intelligent Machinery Agriculture is a global frontier for the future of innovation in robotics.
If you’re looking for a unique challenge in your career, you’ve found your playground. We create first-of-its-kind technology that solves global-scale problems. We create and iterate on computer vision, machine learning, and robotics to create intelligent machinery on a world-wide scale. We are simply beginning the adventure; can we count you in?
Impacting Global Sustainability
We aren’t just working on technology; we are making a positive impact through technology. Through innovating and optimizing solutions for our customers, we’re creating a space where environment and economic sustainability intersect.
Are we serious about the impact we have on the environment? Yes. It’s even in our name – Rivers are better when they are blue and at Blue River our solutions are geared to be part of the solution.
Our "Win Win Win": Keeping Food on Tables for Years to Come. Optimizing Global Chemical Usage. Improving Economic Sustainability for our Customers
Farmers around the world need a new way to address the weed control challenge.
Over-relying on a handful of broadcast-spray chemicals fuels the evolution of herbicide tolerance. Fighting these weeds hurts farmers’ crops and their profitability.
Precision Weed ControlTop 50 Agriculture Innovation, ASABE, 2017 25 Most Disruptive Companies, Inc. Magazine 2017 Global Cleantech Top 100 Companies, Cleantech, 2017
Our Core Competencies
We were the first commercial operation to successfully deploy a solution that paired computer vision and machine learning in lettuce farming – achieving the perfect plant spacing for the lettuce to grow. Since then, we have expanded the application of computer vision and machine learning in agriculture to solve weed vs. crop differentiation, farm object detection, and large machinery control. As we continue to develop and apply our expertise, we look forward to creating technology to make the 21st century farmer more productive and sustainable.
From our founding, we built and deployed software to our machines with an iterative approach to moving fast and building machines that can last through agriculture’s challenging questions. With machines being simultaneously prototyped within our office, our software teams create and deploy code with quick feedback cycles.
Engineering prototypes and testing in our lab or at our test farm enables our teams to move fast. Our teams consist of mechanical, electrical, controls and software engineers. Our nimble culture enables engineers to talk directly with farmers to understand their challenges and bring back solutions to their farm.
Our customers are at the core of everything we create. We don’t try to make assumptions or decisions from afar. We spend time in the fields, with our customers, to understand exactly what they need, and how to translate that into a solution. We listen to every detail, every pain point, every concern, and use that as fuel to create ever-evolving intelligent machinery for them.