Robotics, drones, sensors, crop AI tools to be demonstrated at UC ANR Innovate field day
UC ANR Innovate, the innovation arm of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, invites farmers, researchers and industry partners to participate in the UC ANR Connect Field Day on June 30 at the Hopland Research and Extension Center in Mendocino County. Eight agricultural technology companies will put their vineyard management tools to the test and hear directly from farmers.
“Field days are where the abstract work of agricultural innovation becomes concrete,” said Helle Petersen, director of UC ANR Innovate. “When you get a startup, a farmer and a researcher in the same field looking at the same piece of equipment, the questions get sharper and the feedback gets more useful. That’s the kind of exchange this format is built for.”
The featured companies work across autonomous robotics, aerial spraying, precision irrigation, in-field sensing, and computer-vision crop intelligence. Each company was selected with guidance from UC ANR Innovate’s Industry Advisory Board. Made up of farmers and industry representatives, the board shapes which technologies enter the program, sets the priorities the work is measured against, and informs how field demonstrations are designed.
This cohort includes:
- Saga Robotics has developed Thorvald, an autonomous robot that treats grapevines with UV-C light at night to control powdery mildew, without chemicals and without disrupting daytime vineyard work.
- CropMind is an AI platform that turns field imagery from a phone, camera, drone or satellite into block-level readings of yield, crop load and disease risk.
- Phytech is a sensing and decision-support platform that pairs in-field sensors on soil, vines and irrigation lines with analytics to guide irrigation and crop management.
- Agtonomy is automation software built into equipment at the factory, letting farmers run repetitive jobs like mowing, spraying and weeding with less labor and more consistency.
- Lumo is a precision irrigation system through which smart valves measure and control how much water reaches each block, so the volume applied matches the irrigation plan.
- Verdi is irrigation automation that retrofits onto an existing drip system in under a day, letting farmers run valves, pumps and drip from a single phone or computer.
- Ag-Bee is a California spray-drone company providing precision aerial application for vineyards, including steep terrain and dense canopy where ground equipment cannot easily reach.
- Scout is an AI platform that uses equipment-mounted cameras to read vine health, yield, and block-to-block variability from vineyard imagery.
The field day is the culminating event in UC ANR Connect, part of UC ANR Innovate’s applied innovation programming. It is supported by the California AgTech Alliance, a statewide network strengthening California’s agricultural innovation economy.
Run in partnership with Farmhand Ventures, UC ANR Connect moves agricultural technology from concept to field-ready solution through structured commercialization support, with field days serving as the validation moment when startups demonstrate their work directly to the farmers, researchers and industry partners who can shape and adopt it.
“We constantly hear that growers need a place to honestly evaluate technology without the pressure of a sale,” said Hannah Johnson, industry lead for UC ANR Innovate. “Bringing the cohort to Hopland puts the companies and the people who could benefit from their tools in the same field on the same day.”
The Hopland Research and Extension Center, celebrating its 75th year in 2026, is a landscape-scale living laboratory in southern Mendocino County’s premium wine growing region. Diverse research projects, 15 to 20 of them in any given year, focus on finding practical solutions to issues facing northern California: rangeland management, viticultural systems, oak conservation, soil ecology, and livestock use and management.
“The Hopland REC is an ideal location for this kind of event,” said Hopland REC Director John Bailey. “Our 5,300 acres support wine grapes, cattle herds, sheep flocks, educational programs and vocational trainings. In partnership with local agriculture and UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists, we have the hands-on experience of testing, using and teaching about new technology in a real-world setting.”
About UC ANR Innovate: UC ANR Innovate is the innovation arm of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, dedicated to driving agriculture, food and biotechnology innovation in California. UC ANR Innovate connects researchers, entrepreneurs, farmers and policymakers to move agricultural innovation from research to adoption. Learn more at ucanr.edu/site/innovate.
