Bayer Grants4Tech | SeedSensor

The challenge

Build a seed sized sensor solution that monitors relevant soil properties for seed germination and growth. To be of practical use, SeedSensors need to be environmentally friendly, easy to use, and small.

The Opportunity

Today data driven field management starts the moment plants emerge. Why not earlier? Why is it so hard to sense below the surface? Soil sensors have a couple of disadvantages. They require a dedicated effort to plant and return data of just one spot. How to overcome this limitation? Make them small so that they fit in planters, are planted without additional effort, and distribute many of these sensors over the field. A mesh of sensors will provide a good overview of the soil properties close to every seed.

Your SeedSensor solution should cover following aspects:

Measure relevant parameters accurately
Parameters like temperature and moisture need to be measured. Show us also further parameters that could be of interest for us.
Be as small as possible, preferably of the size of a seed
Present us a sensor that can be put into the soil using a corn planter. The smaller the sensor, the better!
Offer robust and practical solution
Data collected by the SeedSensor should be transmitted successfully to a receiver device. Make your sensor independent of external power supply.
Environmental friendliness
Your solution needs to be either fully biodegradable, reusable, or recyclable.

The applications submitted by the entrants / entrant teams should cover these features as far as available. We are also interested in innovative partial solutions.

For more information about provided materials and other important questions have a look at our FAQs. To learn more about specific challenge conditions download our factsheet here.

Awards

And the winner is...

Seven finalist teams had the chance to present their solution in the finalist event. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the teams had to ship their sensors to Bayer site in St. Louis (USA). During five days of sensor testing the teams and the jury were able to join virtually.
During the online live event at the end of the competition the awards were presented to the teams. The top three received an award of 40.000€, 20.000€ and 15.000€ respectively. A further 10.000 € is awarded to each four remaining finalists.