Weed-Spraying Robot

Research Paper: Y. Du et al., “Neural-Kalman GNSS/INS Navigation for Precision Agriculture,” 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, United Kingdom, 2023, pp. 9622-9629, doi: 10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161351.

Weed-Spraying Robot

In the summer of 2021, I worked with Yayun Du from the Structures-Computer Interaction (SCI) Lab at UCLA to create a robot that could spray herbicide on flax plants in Fargo, North Dakota. Our goal is autonomous, precision farming: allowing robots to meticulously target individual weeds instead of entire fields, thereby dramatically reducing the amount of herbicide and human labor needed to grow crops. Our robot utilizes computer-vision-based navigation and weed-identification algorithms in order to spray weeds with high efficiency, and offers an inexpensive alternative to larger industrial robots designed for large row spacings. The robot identifies flax plants using an implementation of the YOLOv5 neural network, and uses the plant locations both to navigate and to spray weeds (though these algorithms are still under development).

Here is my Final Poster, which won Honorable Mention for the “Best Poster” Award in the Student Undergraduate Research Project (SURP), and later the UCLA Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Science.

Timeline

[July 7] Piggybot
[July 22] Franky
[August 2] Jetbot
[August 16] Turtlebot

Results

Weeds are successfully killed in the center of rows, but they persist in the areas that the robot cannot access without trampling the flax. Hardware upgrades to address this, including a more adaptable spraying system with wider range, are under development.

References

[1] “Dino Vegetable Weeding Robot for Large-Scale Vegetable Farms.” Naïo Technologies, www.naio-technologies.com/en/dino/. 

[2] “TerraSentia.” EarthSense, www.earthsense.co/. 

[3] Du, Yayun, et. al. “A Low-Cost Robot with Autonomous Recharge and Navigation for Weed Control in Fields with Narrow Row Spacing.” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. 

[4] Jocher, G. (2020, May). GitHub – ultralytics/yolov5. GitHub. https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5

Components

[4] 165 RPM HD Premium Planetary Gear Motor w/Encoder. (n.d.). ServoCity. Retrieved August 10, 2021, from https://www.servocity.com/165-rpm-hd-premium-planetary-gear-motor-w-encoder/ SKU: 638326

[5] 深. (n.d.). YDLIDAR X4_YDLIDAR. Ydlidar. Retrieved August 10, 2021, from https://www.ydlidar.com/products/view/5.html

[6] Adafruit. (2015, April 22). Adafruit BNO055 Absolute Orientation Sensor. Adafruit Learning System. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-bno055-absolute-orientation-sensor

[7] Nvidia. (2021). NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX – The World’s Smallest AI Supercomputer. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/jetson-xavier-nx/

[8] The Raspberry Pi Foundation. (n.d.). Raspberry Pi Camera V2. Raspberry Pi. Retrieved August 10, 2021, from https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/camera-module-v2/

[9] Logitech. (n.d.). Logitech C270 HD Webcam. Retrieved August 10, 2021, from https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/webcams/c270-hd-webcam.960-000694.html

[10] Arduino.cc. (n.d.). Arduino Uno Rev3. Arduino. Retrieved August 10, 2021, from Arduino Uno Rev3 — Arduino Online Shop

[11] Adafruit Industries. (n.d.). Adafruit Motor/Stepper/Servo Shield for Arduino v2 Kit. Adafruit. Retrieved August 10, 2021, from https://www.adafruit.com/product/1438?gclid=CjwKCAjwx8iIBhBwEiwA2quaqz_NIxLEd_kMSy94NDOBuE_VfbkM1Xar2MJ6KUTaEhttps://www.adafruit.com/product/1438?gclid=CjwKCAjwx8iIBhBwEiwA2quaqz_NIxLEd_kMSy94NDOBuE_VfbkM1Xar2MJ6KUTaE

[12] Yuome. (2021). Amazon.com: Youme 4S Lipo Battery, 14.8V Lipo 4S 6500mAh 60C with Tracxas Plug for Tracxas Slash X-Maxx RC Buggy Truggy Crawler Monster Car, Helicopter, Airplane (2Packs) : Toys & Games. Amazon.