Technology

Rules an agronomist can read. Evidence behind every number.

Canopiq combines field computer vision, unsupervised probe anomaly detection and a transparent yield-loss model. Here is what each layer does, and where its limits are.

Pipeline

Five passes behind every capture.

01

Recover

Each pixel's colour is mapped back to its NDVI or relative canopy temperature through the export's colour ramp.

02

Zone

The field boundary is found and the crop is split into 16-pixel zones (~1.3 m at 8 cm GSD).

03

Test

Every zone is scored against the whole field with a robust z-score; agronomically trivial differences are ignored.

04

Name the cause

Shape decides: rows of outliers, separate spots, broad soft zones, hot zones or cold zones.

05

Corroborate & price

Probes confirm or question the finding, and the yield model prices it for this season.

Vision engine

Outliers against their own field.

Instead of a fixed NDVI threshold, which breaks across crops, growth stages and sensors, Canopiq compares every zone with the rest of the same field in the same capture. The crop, the light and the camera affect every zone equally, so a problem stands out against its own field.

  • Line failure: a run of zone rows where more than 60% of the row is stressed
  • Pest / disease: three or more separate deep patches (NDVI down by more than 0.22) close together
  • Nutrient zone: a broad, contiguous zone with a moderate NDVI drop
  • Water stress: a contiguous hot canopy zone in thermal
  • Waterlogging: a contiguous cold patch in thermal
Runs
In the browser (on-device), no upload needed
Optional
Cloud multimodal model with structured output
Thermal
Relative canopy temperature only, never absolute °C
Bench
12 synthetic captures + 2 clean fields · 36/36 · 0 false positives
Probe model

Irrigation cycles cancel out.

Every probe in a field is wetted by the same schedule and dried by the same weather. Dividing each probe's reading by the field median per day gives a ratio near 1.0 through every cycle. The 5-day mean of that ratio is scored with a median/MAD robust z-score, which a single odd reading can't distort.

A ratio well below 1 means water isn't reaching that zone. One well above 1 means it's pooling, from a leak, poor drainage or an over-long run time.

r(p,d) = vwc(p,d) / median_p' vwc(p',d) x(p) = mean_{last 5 d} r(p,d) z(p) = 0.6745 · (x(p) − median x) / MAD(x) flag if |z(p)| > 3.5 (dry if z < 0, wet if z > 0)
Yield model

Tonnes and dollars, shown with the working.

Value at risk = hectares affected × expected yield (t/ha) × cause loss share × crop price. The risk score adds severity × confidence, a water-urgency bump and a capped log-value term. Every input is visible, so an agronomist can check the figure.

t = ha · Y · f_cause $ = t · price score = 14·sev·(0.5+0.5·conf) + 12·water + min(30, 8·log10(1+$)) critical ⇒ score ≥ 75 (P1, 24 h)
Copilot

Grounded, cited, and honest about gaps.

Copilot receives the farm's findings, probe anomalies and scouting history as structured data and answers from it, citing finding IDs. Offline mode answers the common questions directly from the record. When a language model is enabled, it gets the same data and the same rule: if the record can't answer, say so.

Limits

What it doesn't do (yet).

Raw multispectral bands

The on-device engine reads rendered NDVI exports. Raw band GeoTIFFs and other indices (NDRE, CWSI) need the cloud pipeline.

Whole-field framing

Hectares assume the capture covers the whole field. Partial captures need the field boundary set in the app.

Diagnosis

Canopiq names the likely cause from the pattern. Pests, diseases and deficiencies still need a scout or lab test to confirm.

Run the engine on your own flight.