Scientists are using digital twin technology that could change the game within the strawberry industry.
A March 2025 study from the University of Florida shows how artificial intelligence can help with strawberry growth, per Phys.org.
The digital twins that the AI creates allow researchers to identify different characteristics of each fruit. It also uses synthetic images to identify when strawberries should be harvested.
This saves time and money on the part of farmers and workers. There is less manual labor that needs to be done, and harvesting can happen at a faster pace.
In its introduction, the study stated that technologies like this "will play a crucial role in ensuring future food security amidst growing economic pressures, including population growth, labor shortages, climate change, and evolving consumer demands."
Strawberries won't save the world. But making sure we have a steady supply of them will level out our food chains.
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Using synthetic images to train the AI also allows researchers to have a continuous amount of data. Even when strawberries are typically out of season, they can still strengthen the program as a research tool.
The AI can currently identify the diameters of real strawberries with a 1.2 millimeter margin of error. The robot can also accurately identify fruit 92% of the time.
This can be especially difficult to do, considering that premature strawberries are green. Misidentification tends to happen when the program misclassifies a leaf as a fruit. But it's something that UoF researchers are always trying to fix.
This technology has only been around for a few years, yet it has massive potential. The research team also hopes to use real-time weather and crop data to expand the digital twin environment. They hope that adding more variables will make the program more accurate.
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"The study shows that a realistic digital twin can jump-start AI tool development for strawberry farms, enabling faster, more cost-effective robotics innovation," said Daeun Choi, lead researcher and an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering at UF/IFAS, to Phys.org.
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