This page describes the robots we have built for research in agriculture
Mantis and Shrimp
General purpose perception research ground vehicles.
Used across our industry projects in defence, mining, and agriculture
Flexible platforms allow rapid deployment in new environments, then we can do the research back in the lab to work out what lower cost sub-set of sensing and equipment can be used to build an industry / application specific prototype
In addition to the sensors seen below, we have added a soil conductivity sensor (dragged behind Shrimp), a natural gamma radiation sensor (also to measure soil properties) and recently a hyperspectral imaging sensor.
Ladybird
Ladybird will transform the way we monitor and harvest vegetables in a broad-acre setting. The project is in collaboration with Horticulture Australia and AusVeg.
The mobile ground robot and supporting intelligent software will have the capability of conducting autonomous farm sensing and manipulation tasks for various vegetable crop varieties. These will include mapping, classification, detection, weeding and ultimately harvesting.
The Ladybird robot is a lightweight omni-directional electric vehicle, inspired by the Coccinellidae (Ladybird). It is equipped with sensing, manipulation, communication and supporting hardware and software. Various user interfaces will also be developed for the growers, contractors and harvesters, so that they can control the robot and use the information derived from the system.
The system has been commissioned during its first field trial at a commercial vegetable farm near Cowra, New South Wales.
J3 Cub
Large area remote sensing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Used across our projects in weed detection.
The UAV has a downward pointing camera with resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels. The field of view is 28 by 22 degrees, and the sample rate is at 3.75 Hz.
Fixed wing aircraft generally have higher payload capacity, longer flight duration and are able to cover larger distances than hovering platforms. The J3 Cub is useful for large area surveys, and is able to provide 'satellite style' imagery at a much higher resolution and lower cost than is possible from space. Using photogrammetry techniques it is also possible to map the terrain, and the combined terrain estimates and imagery are useful for many agricultural survey applications.
Hovering Platforms
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for remote sensing and interaction.
Hovering platforms typically have a smaller payload carrying capacity than the larger, faster, fixed wing aircraft, however, they are able to get much closer to the ground and to fly at lower speeds or hover. They are suited to ultra high resolution scanning and targeted surveys, and even for interaction with the environment such as targeted spraying. For example, we are able to use the onboard cameras to automatically identify weeds and then automatically target the spray.
We have several different hovering platforms, with a variety of sensors and spray capabilities.
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SwagBot
SwagBot is an omni-directional electric ground vehicle designed for use on grazing livestock farms. It has a rugged composite chassis and is capable of navigating undulating and hilly terrain and farm obstacles such as water, mud and branches. Current research is focussed on autonomous farm activities for pasture and livestock monitoring.
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RIPPA™ and VIIPA™
RIPPA™, the Robot for Intelligent Perception and Precision Application is our production prototype for the vegetable growing industry. Based on the Ladybird design, the platform configuration for RIPPA was modified to make it lighter, rugged and easier to operate.
Mounted on RIPPA is VIIPA™, Variable Injection Intelligent Precision Applicator, used for autonomous spot spraying of weeds at high speed using a directed micro-dose of liquid.
RIPPA has also been demonstrated in an apple orchards showing autonomous row following and changing rows, autonomous real time apple detection and targeted variable rate fluid dispensing using VIIPA.
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Ladybird
Inspired by the Coccinellidae or ladybird, the Ladybird robot is a science and research platform that conducts various on-farm crop intelligence and manipulation tasks. Ladybird is an omni-directional robot that is battery and solar powered. The platform has numerous sensing systems including hyperspectral, thermal, infrared, panoramic vision, stereovision with strobe, LiDAR and GPS which allow crop properties to be assessed.
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Mantis and Shrimp
Mantis and Shrimp are general purpose perception research ground vehicles. They are used across our industry projects, including agriculture. The sensors deployed with Mantis and Shrimp include RADAR, LiDAR and panospheric, stereovision and thermal cameras.
Flexible platforms allow rapid deployment in new environments to collect information that we can use to develop lower cost or specialised prototypes specific to the required applications. These platforms are also used for data collection to enable analysis and the development of algorithms that solve industry problems.
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The Digital FarmHand
The Digital FarmHand is a low cost crop robot for small scale farmers in Australia and overseas. Capabilities to perform row crop analytics and allow automation of simple farming tasks are being developed. The design of the platform is based on the use of low cost sensors and computing and manufacturing techniques which will allow farmers to easily maintain and modify the platform to suit their needs.
Similar to a tractor, Digital FarmHand has a hitch mechanism which allows the attachment of various implements. Several implements including a sprayer, weeder and seeder have been manufactured for the platform.
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UAVs
The ACFR has a history of operating UAVs to support the development and field testing of remote sensing technologies. Recently the ACFR has applied these technologies to the areas of Environmental Monitoring, Agriculture, Forestry and Weeds.
We operate a range of fixed and rotary wing platforms with payloads ranging from 0.5kg to 15kg.
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