Blue River Technology

Blue River Technology applies computer vision, machine learning and deep learning to agricultural machinery, giving machines the ability to identify individual plants and act on them. The company's technical work spans robotics, data science and real-time perception: systems must distinguish crops from weeds at speed and at scale, pixel by pixel and plant by plant, in variable field conditions. It was founded in 2011 by Stanford University graduate students Jorge Heraud and Lee Redden.

Its flagship product, See & Spray, uses computer vision and machine learning to tell crops apart from weeds and apply herbicide only where it is needed. The company reports that the approach reduces chemical use by up to 90%. Blue River joined John Deere in 2017 and operates worldwide in the agriculture and farming sectors.

The company describes itself as mission-driven, with a focus on environmental sustainability and reducing chemical inputs in farming, and says it has retained a startup mentality and collaborative culture following the acquisition.