39 unmanned systems
inside
April/May 2017
ENGINEERING. PRACTICE. POLICY.
robot position its sensors at different heights,
including above the plant canopy.
For the field hyperspectral imaging sensor
suite, the project team used: Resonon hyper-
spectral imagers, ranged from 400-900nm
and 900-1700nm (providing up to 400 bands
with spectral resolution fine to 2nm for the
plant biological sensing); a FLIR T1030sc
thermal imager with uncooled micrometer
ranging 7.5-14 micrometer (provides 1% tem-
perature accuracy with GPS, compass infor-
mation recorded); and a Canon EOS 7D Mark
II, Visible camera with a 20MP dual-pixel AF
CMOS sensor, providing a 10fps continuous
shooting with autofocus. The sensor selection
was based on availability, resolution, and ef-
fectiveness of sensors, Chowdhary said.
The robot uses real-time kinematic (RTK)
GPS and inertial sensors for navigation and
sonar to detect and avoid obstacles.
"The good thing about working with
crop plants is that, because they're
in rows, the mapping problem is
simplif ied," Chowd ha r y sa id.
"However, unless the GPS anten-
na sticks out of the canopy, get-
ting your location can be difficult.
Right now we use the boom to put
the antenna well off the ground."
"It's fully autonomous in terms of path-
following," Chowdhary added. "Over time, we
" THE AIM IS TO SEE WHAT A NEW GENE DOES IN A
PLANT, OR WHAT EFFECTS AN HERBICIDE HAS."
Girish Chowdhary, director, Distributed Autonomous Systems Lab
$5,000 to $10,000
The target cost of the
TERRA-MEPP robot.
Source: Girish Chowdhary,
University of Illinois
fast
fact