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AgBot 2.0: Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Corn Leaf Sampling

Brian B. Huang, Purdue University, Mechanical Engineering

David J. Cappelleri, Purdue University, Department of Mechanical Engineering

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This material is based upon work supported by the IoT4Ag Engineering Research Center funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under NSF Cooperative Agreement Number EEC-1941529.  Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect those of the NSF.

IoT4Ag

JULY 28, 2021

IoT4Ag: AgBot 2.0 REU PRESENTATION

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Introduction and Problem Statement

  • Current food production can not keep up with the growing population and farmers lose hundreds of acres of land each year
  • Current agriculture sensing vehicles cause too much disturbances to crops
  • We proposed a small unmanned ground vehicle to monitor crops under the canopy
  • Purpose: to collect leaf samples for early detection of diseases that will harm the plant

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IoT4Ag

JULY 28, 2021

IoT4Ag: AgBot 2.0 REU PRESENTATION

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Overview of the Technical Approach

  • Designed a custom camera suite to house the tracking camera, RGB camera, and light detection and ranging sensor (LiDAR)
  • Used LiDAR to scan under the canopy and generate point cloud data for agriculture analysis
  • Created custom nichrome wire end-effector to cut leaf samples off the corn

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IoT4Ag

JULY 28, 2021

IoT4Ag: AgBot 2.0 REU PRESENTATION

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Results

Jackal & LiDAR

  • Successfully manufactured and mounted sensor suite on the Jackal
  • Camera mount was able to support the sensors when traversing rough terrain
  • LiDAR was able to scan the field at ACRE

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Nichrome wire:

  • Created a circuit with the nichrome wire in order to heat it up to cut the leaves
  • Connected the nichrome wire end-effector to a servo motor for on-demand actuation

5 Volt Battery

Nichrome Wire

3.3kΩ Resistor

Circuit for heating the nichrome wire

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Clean cut of a corn leaf with the nichrome wire

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Jackal robot with the tracking camera, RGB camera, and LiDAR fully mounted in the field at ACRE

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LiDAR scan of a row of corn

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Nichrome wire end-effector attached to a 3D printed claw

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IoT4Ag

JULY 28, 2021

IoT4Ag: AgBot 2.0 REU PRESENTATION

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Summary

  • Successfully manufactured and integrated camera suite
  • Took the Jackal for a field test
  • Cleanly cut corn leaves with the nichrome wire

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Future Work

  • Integrate the robotic arm with the Jackal robot
  • Power the nichrome wire with the Jackal
  • Have the Jackal travel autonomously
  • Identify specific parts of the corn with machine learning

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IoT4Ag

JULY 28, 2021

IoT4Ag: AgBot 2.0 REU PRESENTATION

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Thank You!

  • Questions?

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IoT4Ag

JULY 28, 2021

IoT4Ag: AgBot 2.0 REU PRESENTATION