Creating Digital Twins for Improved Orchard Management

Explanation for a new project led by Dr. Daniel Uyeh from MSU Agricultural Engineering funded by the MDARD Farm Innovations grant. The main focus of the project is to utilize a technology called "digital twins" coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle fruit industry-wide challenges such as labor and climate change. This technology essentially serves as a digital environment where we can simulate different growing strategies, environmental conditions, etc. to guide farm management decisions. The exciting part of this is that because it is guided by simulations, we are not confined by the restraints of traditional in-field studies, allowing more rapid advancements toward things like robotics, farm automation and risk mitigation.