Farming the future

IRL's Dr Kit Wong (left) and Patrick Lim are developing a mobile robotic platform to help the horticultural industry increase on-farm productivity.

IRL has developed a mobile robotic platform as the basis for intelligent machines aimed at increasing on-farm efficiency and reducing wastage in the horticulture industry.

IRL robotics research team leader Patrick Lim says the platform has been designed specifically to move around the outdoor farm environment on its own, not just negotiating the uneven ground surface but also sensing the position of the crop.

"To allow it to navigate without human intervention, we have equipped it with machine intelligence that allows it to map its environment and discriminate between different plant types.

"It uses an array of sensors to get a picture of the territory it is working in so that it can move around safely and not damage or destroy the growing plants.

“This intelligence is vital if the robot is to be useful in tasks such as weed eradication and harvesting of crops," he says.

The team has been trialling the robot platform around IRL Auckland and out in the field. The preliminary results have been very encouraging,  with the platform achieving its intended design objectives.

The next stage in this project will be to produce a multi-purpose manipulator—a tool that will be mounted on the robotic platform to perform the wide variety of jobs involved in horticulture.

Lim says this will mean increasing the intelligence of the robot and expanding its range of sensors.

"If this approach is to be successful in mechanising and automating all the stages of horticulture, the robot needs to be able to make its own decisions on issues such as the best route to take in the field, the quality of the crop and which plants are ready for harvesting—important if it is to be able to harvest a crop selectively—and how best to pick the crop so that there is no damage or wastage."

The platform's development was achieved thanks to the Ministry of Science and Innovation's Capability Fund, and with strong support from industry, in particular Auckland produce company Fresh Direct, which has guided the research direction and provided technical expertise.