Pest Control
An innovation project that might save lives. And a technology that could improve your company's health too.
NTT DATA Business Solutions
Giant Hogweed Case
Toxic plants – like the Giant Hogweed – are spreading across Europe. Their sap burns the skin and can blind people. These weeds must be eradicated, but they are difficult to detect. At least, they used to be: With the help of NTT DATA Business Solutions the giant hogweed has been brought under control.
What if intelligent technologies could make nature a safer place?
See how we brought innovative environmental protection to life in this video with our Global Head of Innovation, Mark Albrecht.
We replaced manual efforts with an entirely new automatic, end-to-end process. But it didn't take us years and millions of dollars: We turned the first rough idea sketched on a napkin into a working solution in less than a month.
Mark Albrecht, Vice President, Global Head of Innovation
A Matter of Life and Depth
Landowners in Denmark are obliged to fight a highly toxic plant. If they refuse, they risk severe penalties. But the task is extremely time-consuming and expensive. Just locating the plants takes days and requires specialized biologists.
The idea: Combining intelligent technology and SAP innovations to detect harmful plants automatically. In a way nobody else could
The Story Behind
The easiest way to screen large areas of land? By air!
Our Partner, renowned drone operator ProDrone, provided us with high-res images of the Danish municipalities’ land – an area twice as large as New York City. First, specialists labeled the images to distinguish between invasive and other plants. Based on this data, we then trained a neural network for automatic image recognition. The result? Our custom software running on Hadoop and SAP HANA can now detect giant hogweed extremely accurately – and its precision is increasing constantly.
Deep Learning to the Point.
The neural network bases on TensorFlow already identifies giant hogweed more accurately than any biologist. And it’s a huge time and money saver: Right on their smartphone, field workers can now see the exact geolocation where the plant is invading their land – and take action immediately. We made the app for that in just a few days using a cloud-based platform. It also records countermeasures and submits them to the system immediately, so no area needs to be checked twice.
Drones, image recognition, and big data are nothing new. But they are mere tools. To turn them into real business value takes a unique set of skills, deep industry knowledge, technological expertise, and the right choice of partners. That’s what we stand for.
That’s innovation to the point.
Explore Your Co-Innovation Options
You might even take advantage of the giant hogweed case. We already transferred our experiences with drones and AI into new endeavors, spanning the utilities industry and going all the way to warehouse management. And that’s how we work in every innovation project.
More Stories: A Series of Co-Innovation
FarmBot Innovation Case
The FarmBot Network: Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions created a platform for users of FarmBot gardens, integrating logistics, procurement, and the gardens themselves.
Kia Mia Innovation Case
The Kia Mia case: Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions used artificial intelligence and SAP HANA
Logistics Bridge Innovation Case
The logistics bridge case: Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions used Internet of Things technology and SAP cloud resources to build a better track-and-trace solution.
Xervon Innovation Case
The XERVON cooling Towers: Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions used machine learning to increase efficiency and better schedule maintenance.
Speak to Us Today
Every innovation project is a story of its own. Co-innovate with NTT DATA Business Solutions and write yours now! Get in touch with us today, and let’s discuss where your pain points lie, what you want to achieve, and how we can help you do that. To the point.
Just contact us – we will be glad to help you.