2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Robots are becoming more integrated into the manufacturing industry. Though most of the manufacturing environment is not as complicated as outdoor, recent advances on sensors and algorithm provide an interesting outlook on how robots will be working outdoor with humans. Commercial small unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) or mobile ground robots with navigation sensing modality provides a platform to increase farm management efficiency. The platform can be retrofitted with different manifolds that perform a specific task, e.g., spraying, scouting (having multiple sensors), phenotyping, harvesting, etc. This presentation will focus on the robot prototype being used for selective harvesting of cotton. Autonomous map-based robot navigation will be presented including the initial result for selective harvesting experiment. The mobile robot was retrofitted with a vacuum-type system with a small storage bin. A video of the performance test on navigation and harvesting will be presented.