Revolute Systems — Tree-Level Precision Agriculture for Orchards
Making precision practical. Revolute Systems turns satellite, soil, fruit-count and fruit-size data into actions you can take this season. We reconcile every layer of an orchard block — the soil beneath it, the canopy growing over a season, and the fruit it finally carries — into one data portal and one variable-rate prescription your spreader runs, tree by tree. Based at Datavoice House, Technopark, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa.
What we do — one block, read from the soil up
We scan every orchard block the same way and stack the readings into one decision:
- Layer 01 — Soil (EMI): Electromagnetic induction maps soil electrical conductivity at three depths (25, 50 and 90 cm) at 5x5 m resolution — clay, moisture and structure, the ground every root works with.
- Layer 02 — Canopy (RevToolbox & Satellite): Canopy vigour (NDVI) every few days across the season, with four years of history at 10 m, sharpened to 0.5 m on demand.
- Layer 03 — Fruit size (RevScout S): Stereo-sizing every fruit on every tree as the camera drives the row; mean diameter mapped per tree to GPS.
- Layer 04 — Yield (RevScout S): Count times size becomes modelled yield, mapped tree by tree.
Resolution highlights: 5x5 m soil EC; canopy NDVI every 5 days; per-tree fruit count and size; one portal all the way to the spreader.
RevScout S — AI fruit-count and fruit-size camera
RevScout S is our AI field camera that counts AND sizes every fruit on every tree in a single drive. It mounts on an ATV or tractor and processes in real time as you drive between rows. The camera takes up to 10 photos per tree (5 per side) and the algorithm selects the two highest counts. Size accuracy is about 1 mm, and yield estimates typically reach R2 = 0.94 against actual harvest after a 60-tree ground-truth calibration via the RevField app. Covers roughly 30 to 100 hectares per day. Available for purchase or as a scanning service.
RevToolbox — the data portal that reconciles every layer
RevToolbox is the centre of gravity. Soil scans, satellite vigour, fruit count, fruit size and field calibration all flow in, and prescription files flow back out — one source of truth your whole team works from. It uses two satellites: Sentinel-2 at 10 m every 5 days for monitoring, and commercial tasking at 0.5-0.8 m on demand for tree-level applications.
- Tree-level canopy mapping at 50-80 cm, with cultivar isolation (pollinator rows excluded) and row-level setup.
- Vigour and crop-moisture monitoring from satellite imagery, refreshed every 5 days, with four years of history per block.
- Zonal reporting — combine satellite vigour with the EC soil scan to find zones that behave the same way, season after season.
- Variable-rate prescriptions from any layer (vigour, EC, yield, fruit size), single-layer or two-raster combine, exported for Trimble, John Deere, AGCO and RedAnt.
- Google Earth (KML/KMZ) export for in-field inspection on a phone, plus field calibration using the phone's built-in GPS.
EMI Soil Scanning — the foundation every layer sits on
Where standard chemical grids only sample every 50x50 m, EMI scanning maps soil electrical conductivity (EC) at three depths — 25 cm (root zone), 50 cm (sub-root) and 90 cm (drainage) — at a practical 5x5 m resolution. A typical 40-hectare block takes one day. The result guides targeted zonal soil sampling instead of grid sampling, drainage and irrigation block design, soil-moisture probe placement, and variable-rate lime and gypsum. Where soil EC and canopy NDVI agree, you have found a real management zone; where they disagree, that is your sampling priority.
Rev-Sizer & RevSizing — fruit size on the tree
The Rev-Sizer is a banded-trigger digital caliper that measures fruit circumference on the tree to 0.5 mm — no picking required, up to 3,000 fruit per day, water-resistant, with Wi-Fi sync. Weekly readings build a growth curve per block; the RevSizing module inside RevToolbox V4 fits a regional cultivar model and predicts harvest size by market class for producers, packhouses, marketers and logisticians. Weekly growth increments are an early warning: a flat week is usually under-irrigation, caught before harvest rather than at the packhouse.
RevField — field-scouting app
RevField is our offline mobile field-scouting app, built first for pest and disease scouting. Scouts see their farm and block borders without signal, drop a GPS-tagged pin on any problem and log it from a guided menu — Category, Issue Type, Subcategory, Type — covering pests, diseases, nutrient deficiencies, irrigation issues and crop quality, each with an intensity rating, photos and notes. Observations sync to RevToolbox, where they plot on the block map and filter by type, intensity and date range. The same GPS-tagged counts also serve as yield ground-truth for RevScout S calibration.
Precision Go-to Guide — the orchard runs in cycles
Every fruit crop moves through the same arc — dormancy, bud break, flowering, fruit set, cell division, cell expansion, veraison, harvest and post-harvest — and at each stage a different question matters most. Block development (site selection, soil prep, cultivar and rootstock choice, planting and trellis direction, and the first two establishment years) sets the yield ceiling before the first season. Each stage has agronomic practices powered by EMI, NDVI, RevScout, Rev-Sizer, RevToolbox, probes and RevField. Applications include variable-rate nitrogen, yield estimation, fruit-size management, irrigation optimisation, and soil pH and nutrient correction.
Case study — precision soil management vs blanket application
Across eight table-grape farms, 301 hectares of Orange River alluvial soils, and 954 zone-level soil-chemistry samples over five years, precision zonal soil management avoided R5.0 million in misallocated amendments — a 9.1x return on the EMI scanning and targeted sampling spend (R3,344/ha/year avoided versus R367/ha/year invested). Potassium variability (K can swing from 1.1% to 10.9% within one block) was the single biggest driver of waste. Every farm returned at least 2.1x.
Pricing & quotes
Every precision plan is quoted to your tools and block sizes. EMI soil scanning is a once-off; RevToolbox satellite, RevScout fruit mapping and the RevSizing software run per season; the Rev-Sizer caliper is once-off hardware, and RevScout S automatically includes RevToolbox satellite and fruit-sizing software. Per-hectare rates step down as area grows. For a tailored quote, message us on WhatsApp at +27 62 351 6182 or use the contact form — the first conversation is free.
Contact
Revolute Systems (Pty) Ltd, Datavoice House, 16 Elektron Avenue, Technopark, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa. Field surveys & operations: Jacobus — +27 62 351 6182, Jacobus@revolutesystems.com. Software & data portal: Berno — Berno@revolutesystems.com. RevToolbox login: revtoolbox.co.za. The first conversation is free — we walk your farm and suggest a starting layer, usually an EMI scan.