Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

The Dept of Primary Industry and Regional Development (DPRID) currently runs an extensive surveillance program for the noxious skeleton weed. The identification and locating of skeleton weeds is currently done by contractors while sitting in a vehicle.

OptiWeed

Phobos developed an application for identifying and locating skeleton weeds from aerial imagery. OptiWeed is an application developed to assist in the storage, categorisation and recognition of weeds using machine learning techniques.

Sensorem has been working in collaboration with Phobos, combining bleeding-edge machine learning and remote sensing technologies to assist the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development overcome a major agronomic challenge. Sensorem and Phobos have been using innovation and technology to optimise the process of conducting Skeleton Weed surveillance throughout the Western Australian Wheatbelt. This new process is quicker, cheaper and more accurate than traditional methods, therefore benefiting the grower and the state more broadly.

- Ed Boxall, Managing Director