Articles tagged with Agricultural Robots
A new system can map soil moisture tree by tree, allowing growers to water specific trees if they're dry. Maintaining the right moisture level is crucial for plant health, as too little water can stress trees, while too much water can deprive roots of oxygen.
IITGN researchers develop a novel control framework for flexible continuum robots, called virtual actuation space (VAS), to improve their precision and scalability. VAS reduces the complexity of controlling multi-section robots by using just two parameters: direction and magnitude.
The AI for Good Global Summit 2025 will showcase AI innovations delivering better healthcare and education, reducing disaster risks, ensuring water and food security, and bolstering economic resilience. The event, organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), features talks from AI leaders and 100+ demos.
Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University developed an autonomous driving algorithm for robots to navigate raised cultivation beds, utilizing lidar point cloud data. The system enables precise movement and accuracy in both virtual and actual environments, promising to expand tasks beyond harvesting to monitoring and pruning.
The new robotic gripper, called GRIP-tape, uses a combination of softness and stiffness to grasp fragile fruits and vegetables with precision. With its ability to navigate obstacles and deposit objects into containers, the gripper has shown promising results in lifting large fruits like lemons.
Researchers at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology developed Leafbot, a soft robot that uses vibration-driven locomotion to traverse uneven surfaces. The robot's compliant structure and simple motion strategy enable it to overcome complex obstacles, making it valuable for applications such as inspection and exploration.
Researchers at MIT have developed a new design for robotic insects that can perform precise pollination with increased speed and maneuverability. The revamped robot has a longer flight duration and can complete acrobatic maneuvers, enabling it to aid in mechanical pollination and boost fruit yields.
Researchers at UTIA and the USDA-ARS are developing advanced automated sensors, insect traps, and robotic technologies to identify pest species and determine contaminated areas. The new systems will reduce post-harvest losses and contamination in the global food market and supply chain.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture has won a four-year grant to create hands-on curriculum about AI-related technologies for future farmers and leaders. Selected students will test the curriculum in drones, robotics, and other smart agriculture technologies, gaining skills in coding, drone-work, and robotics.
Researchers developed a robot that identifies plants by measuring leaf properties with an electrode, achieving an average accuracy of 97.7% for ten different species. The device may revolutionize crop management and early disease detection, but its limitations need to be addressed.
A new University of Illinois study examines the adoption of robotic weeding technology to fight superweeds, finding that forward-looking management strategies are more effective than myopic approaches. The research suggests that farmers with a long-term perspective on weed resistance will benefit from early adoption of robots.
Researchers developed ROSE, a soft robotic gripper that gently grasps objects using a unique 'wrinkling' phenomenon. The study demonstrates ROSE's effectiveness in picking up various crops, including strawberries and mushrooms, with high success rates.
Researchers will focus on automating repetitive tasks to improve efficiency and reduce reliance on manual labor. The goal is to increase automation adoption among nurseries, promoting sustainable growth in the rural communicates where the industry is predominantly located.
The WVU team, led by Yu Gu, is testing Loopy's ability to 'co-design' itself and learn to mark contaminated areas. Inspired by natural phenomena like ant swarms and tree roots, Loopy changes form in response to its environment.
Researchers from the University of Bonn are working on a project to make farming more efficient and environmentally friendly using new technologies and artificial intelligence. They aim to tackle key research questions such as monitoring farmland for nutrient deficiency, weed growth, and pest infestations in real-time.
A team of researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology developed a self-folding origami gripper that can be mounted onto drones, enabling them to grasp and hold objects. The gripper weighs only 5 grams but demonstrates grasping force equivalent to holding a 130-gram object.
In Brazil, around 90% of sugarcane area uses natural enemies like microorganisms and biochemicals for pest control. Researchers have registered over 629 biological products, with a steady increase in use year after year.
The WVU Research Experience for Undergraduates program aims to solve real-world problems in Appalachia using mobile robotics. Students will conduct independent research in areas like drone navigation and swarming behaviors, focusing on enabling change with robotics tools.
A Washington State University study found that watching videos of a soft robot working with a person at picking and placing tasks lowered the viewers' safety concerns and feelings of job insecurity. Soft robots have a potential psychological advantage over rigid robots, as proximity does not increase negative reactions.
A team of engineers from the University of Illinois has developed a long-jumping robot with a lightweight elastomer body and artificial muscle made from coiled nylon fishing line. The robot can jump 60 times its body size in horizontal distance, opening up new possibilities for sensing and exploration applications.
The study combines real and robotic insects to understand how they sense forces in their limbs while walking. Campaniform sensilla (CS) are force receptors found in insect limbs that respond to stress and strain, providing critical information for controlling locomotion.
EPFL researchers used Chat-GPT to design a working robotic tomato harvester, showcasing the AI tool's potential for collaborating with humans in robotic design. The study highlights opportunities and risks of applying artificial intelligence to robotics, emphasizing the need for careful evaluation of LLMs' role in design.
A new study integrates robotics into wildlife conservation, enhancing predator deterrents through automated movement and adaptiveness. The findings demonstrate improved survival times and increased efficacy of protection against livestock predation.
Researchers identified three main topics: environmental perception, risk assessment and mitigation, and human factors and ergonomics in automated agricultural machines. The study highlights the need for improved sensors and safety standards to address the challenges posed by dynamic environments.
Researchers developed a new theory of multilegged locomotion, creating robotic models that can move across uneven surfaces without sensors. The robot's leg redundancy enables it to transport itself and loads on challenging terrain, making it suitable for applications like agriculture, space exploration, and search and rescue.
Researchers at Waseda University developed a four-wheeled robot capable of sowing, pruning, and harvesting in dense vegetation, improving efficiency by 49% compared to manual control. The robot's advanced maneuvering system reduces damage to plants and increases farming productivity in various environments.
The researchers designed the robot to mimic the movement of flippers in water and centipedes on land, resulting in impressive speeds of 1.5 body lengths per second on land and 0.74 body lengths per second in water. The amphibious robot has potential applications in search and rescue, marine agriculture, and fish feeding.
Researchers have developed insect-sized jumping robots capable of navigating tight spaces, with a new study demonstrating two configurations that can successfully jump without manual intervention. The robots use a dynamic buckling cascade process to store and release elastic energy, allowing them to propel themselves upward.
Researchers at WVU are developing software for robots to learn and adapt in real-time, inspired by the neural networks of electric fish. The goal is to enable robots to navigate different terrains autonomously without human supervision.
Researcher Giuseppe Loianno receives $1 million grant from DARPA to develop USARC robots that can autonomously collaborate in teams. The project aims to create robots capable of executing maneuvers with superior performances compared to human-controlled or current autonomous ground and aerial robots.
A Washington State University research team developed a system using cameras and small drones to detect and deter pest birds. The system successfully reduced bird counts by four-fold in vineyards, resulting in a 50% reduction in damaged fruits. Further refinement and industry partnerships are needed for commercialization.
Researchers warn of substantial risks associated with AI in agriculture, including cyber-attacks and environmental degradation. They suggest involving ecologists in technology design to avoid scenarios like overuse of fertilisers and soil erosion.
The new system, using over-current driven LED lights, improves image brightness and color consistency, reducing motion blur and variability caused by sunlight. The prototype showed an average decrease of 85% in standard deviation for hue-saturation-value channels compared to auto-exposure settings.
The TerraSentia robot, developed by the University of Illinois, can autonomously count plants and measure stem width to estimate biomass. Early adopters will receive consulting services to teach their robot to detect additional traits that drive their business or research.
The agricultural robot is a semiautonomous system that gathers and transmits real-time data on crop growth and development. It uses various sensors and cameras to capture phenotypic information and assess environmental conditions, enabling crop breeders to make actionable decisions and improve yields.
The National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC) at Carnegie Mellon University is hosting Pittsburgh Robotics Day to celebrate robotics technology in western Pennsylvania. The event features exhibits and demonstrations of various robotic applications, including autonomous farming, bridge construction, and driver monitoring systems.
The robot population in North America has nearly doubled over the last decade, with robots becoming increasingly important in various applications. The latest edition of the Handbook of Industrial Robotics highlights the evolution of robots and their integration with humans in manufacturing, agriculture, and construction.