To support the hypothesis that embracing robotics has the potential to address farming challenges and, at the same time, replace large and complex farm machinery, this article proposes designing a farm around a heterogeneous robotic system dubbed Structured Ecological Cultivation With Autonomous Robots in Agriculture (SPECULARIA). This multirobot system has mobile robots … [Read more...] about Structured Ecological Cultivation With Autonomous Robots in Agriculture: Toward a Fully Autonomous Robotic Indoor Farming System
Robot kinematics
Field Robot for High-Throughput and High-Resolution 3D Plant Phenotyping: Towards Efficient and Sustainable Crop Production
With the need to feed a growing world population, the efficiency of crop production is of paramount importance. To support breeding and field management, various characteristics of the plant phenotype need to be measured, a time-consuming process when performed manually. We present a robotic platform equipped with multiple laser and camera sensors for high-throughput, … [Read more...] about Field Robot for High-Throughput and High-Resolution 3D Plant Phenotyping: Towards Efficient and Sustainable Crop Production
Touching the Sound: Audible Features Enable Haptics for Robot Control
Haptic control interfaces can significantly improve the quality of teleoperation in robotic and mechatronic systems. However, the required force feedback introduces new challenges when highly constrained environments and systems hinder the use of conventional force sensors. In this article, we propose a haptic control method that provides feedback to the operator when force … [Read more...] about Touching the Sound: Audible Features Enable Haptics for Robot Control
SoRoSim: A MATLAB Toolbox for Hybrid Rigid
Soft robotics has been a trending topic within the robotics community for almost two decades. However, available tools for the modeling and analysis of soft robots are still limited. This article introduces a user-friendly MATLAB toolbox, Soft Robot Simulator (SoRoSim), that integrates the geometric variable-strain (GVS) model of Cosserat rods to facilitate the static and … [Read more...] about SoRoSim: A MATLAB Toolbox for Hybrid Rigid
Opinion– Opportunities and Challenges to Integrate Artificial Intelligence Into Manufacturing Systems: Thoughts From a Panel Discussion
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to significantly increase productivity, quality, and profitability in future manufacturing systems. (Caveat: The panel did not attempt to disentangle artificial intelligence from machine learning and used the two terms loosely interchangeably during the discussion.) Traditional mass production will give way to … [Read more...] about Opinion– Opportunities and Challenges to Integrate Artificial Intelligence Into Manufacturing Systems: Thoughts From a Panel Discussion
