Robots make plant inventory easy as 1, 2, 3

Ornamental plant growers manually count tens of thousands of plants each season to get an accurate inventory before they commit to fulfilling major orders. An Alabama ornamental nursery might have as many as 80,000 plants per acre, with larger nurseries covering more than 1,000 acres. Some growers estimate they spend more than $6.5 million in labor each year simply counting plants, according to research by Auburn University. Growers also struggle with rising labor costs and immigration issues, which have threatened their profitability in recent years.

A team of Auburn researchers is developing an artificial intelligence-powered robot that will be able to inventory thousands of plants while also collecting data on plant quality, growth, pests and diseases. With the support of Alabama’s ornamental nurseries, they are teaching an existing robot, with its sensors and cameras, to inventory and assess if a plant is ready for sale. The team interviewed nursery workers to learn the characteristics — like shape, color, size, and fullness — that indicate a plant is sale-ready and then painstakingly labeled images to provide the AI with the data it needs to learn.

As the robot learns, it will be able to determine the size, grade and species of a plant. Using geolocation, the robot will also be able to tell which parts of a nursery have pests or diseases, allowing growers to administer insecticide and fertilizers more strategically.

Over successive seasons of use, the data collected will even show how plants grow faster or slower in different parts of the nursery as well as where diseases are most common. That means the robot’s inventory data can be used for better, more efficient management of the nursery. The first commercially available version of the robot will likely be available in August 2026 and cost about $30,000.

View the full statement on the NIDB.

Project supported by AFRI funds. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Research.