Farmers Hot Line - Harvest Fall 2025 | Page 10

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“ One major challenge was fitting all the required components within the small 10-inch width of the robot, which limited the space available for wiring and mechanical parts,” Lu said.“ Another challenge arose when integrating the software and hardware, particularly with the operating system that initially caused system lag.”

Despite these challenges, Lu said the team solved these issues by switching to a more suitable operating system that allowed for better camera integration and real-time processing.

Another large constraint, according to Schwartzberg, was coming up with a design that would fit within the 15-inch row width:

“ A lot of the research we had done on other solutions were based on research plots with much larger row widths. In this case, large tractors would just straddle the rows. So, we had to come up with a completely new design.”

Autonomy and Future Improvements

There are plans for future versions of the robot to operate autonomously.

“ Achieving this will require advancements in AI and GPS navigator for the robot to navigate the field and analyze crop health without human intervention,” Lu explained.“ Additionally, improvements in sensor technology and autonomous navigation systems will be necessary to handle complex field

conditions.” If given more time and resources, Shuman said he’ d make several improvements to the current prototype.“ There’ s a lot of little improvements mechanically and electronically I would like to make,” he said.“ If we had more time and resources, we would ideally like to go with brushless motors, versus the current brush motor. They’ re a lot more efficient, and a lot easier to use.”

The use of AI is also on the minds of the development team.

“ AI could enable the robot to analyze images and data collected from the field to diagnose crop diseases, nutrient deficiencies and predict yields,” Lu said.

“ By integrating machine learning algorithms, the robot could process vast amounts of data to identify patterns and provide insights that help farmers make more informed decisions about their crops.”

As AI and robotics continue to advance, these technologies could become essential tools for farmers, helping them optimize crop health, predict yields and make more informed decisions.“ The robot is just one part of the whole set of ideas. The other part is collecting the data and then going through that data and actually being able to see what is going on in the plants. In the future, that will be the main part of this idea,” Schwartzberg concluded.

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