Take your FarmBot’s imaging capabilities to the next level with an OAK camera from Luxonis. These cameras can be used to capture 3D point clouds of your plants, run AI classification models, and more. They come in a variety of configurations including wide and standard fields of view, single and stereo sensors, USB and PoE connectivity, and with or without IP-rated water and dust proofing.

Which camera you choose will depend on your goals, operating environment (indoors or outdoors), and the mounting position of the camera. Example use cases include:

Photogrammetry to create a digital twin of your FarmBot and plants

Plant height and volume estimation to track growth over time

Plant health monitoring using AI classification models

Providing a gesture control interface for your FarmBot

Connecting an OAK camera to FarmBot with sidecar hardware

At this time FarmBot OS does not natively support what makes an OAK camera an OAK camera. In other words, you cannot directly capture stereo images or utilize an OAK’s AI capabilities via FarmBot OS and the web app.

Instead, you will need to connect the OAK camera to a sidecar computer, such as another Raspberry Pi, and then write your own software to control the OAK camera and communicate with FarmBot OS and the web app.

While this is a more advanced project that requires some programming knowledge, there are many resources available to help you get started:

• Refer to the OAK documentation for setting up your sidecar, loading an AI model, and familiarizing yourself with the OAK API.
• Refer to the FarmBot developer documentation for information on how to communicate with FarmBot OS and the web app from your sidecar.

Using an OAK camera as a USB camera

You can use a USB-based OAK camera in place of the stock FarmBot camera if you are just looking for higher resolution images or a different field of view. Simply mount the OAK camera, plug it in, and perform camera calibration.

This will allow you to capture higher resolution images using FarmBot’s standard take photo commands. However, you will not be able to use the OAK camera’s full capabilities such as stereoscopic capturing, depth mapping, or AI classification models with this method.

What’s next?

• Take Time Lapse Plant Photography

  DIY instructions for using FarmBot to control camera equipment for time lapse photography of your plants growing

• Use FarmBot as a 3D CNC Camera Rig

  Use FarmBot to move a camera around in three dimensions for fun videography!