{"id":75008,"date":"2026-08-12T09:30:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T13:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=75008"},"modified":"2026-08-12T09:30:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T13:30:50","slug":"budbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/budbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Alums Using Robots and AI to Improve Crop Health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Launched for vineyards, their company\u2014dubbed Budbreak\u2014now works with growers of berries, citrus, almonds, and more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Melissa Newcomb<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma starts work on the vineyard before sunrise, methodically inspecting the health of each grapevine and documenting potential problems before they spread. She never gets tired, doesn\u2019t mind working through the night, and can cover acres of vines without missing a plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Emma isn\u2019t a human worker\u2014she\u2019s a robot developed by Budbreak<\/a>, an agritech startup founded by Jonathan Moon \u201921, MS \u201924, and Ertai Liu, PhD \u201924, that helps growers monitor crops and access data more quickly and easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe can autonomously navigate vineyard rows and collect data for hours at a time,\u201d says Moon. \u201cIt\u2019s like a Roomba: you just start it and let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using cameras and artificial intelligence, the robot rolls down the vineyard rows taking thousands of photos to create a digital replica with details about each plant, from its height and the size of the fruit to signs of disease, pests, and animal damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Ertai
Liu (left) and Moon. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Budbreak is also developing AI tools that can pair what Emma sees in the field with agricultural research\u2014from institutions like Cornell and the University of California, Davis\u2014that help growers better understand problems and decide how to address them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company recommends scanning fields at least four times a year: in the offseason, when fruit begins changing color, around harvest, and at bud break (when vines revive from winter dormancy, and the inspiration for the startup\u2019s name).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Farmers only get a limited number of growing seasons in a lifetime\u2014perhaps 40 or 50 chances to learn and improve,” Moon observes. “Budbreak\u2019s vision is to use AI and robotics to learn across thousands of acres and millions of plants at once.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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