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WUR students’ robot at Science Weekend
Robatic Bullseye can navigate through a cornfield independently and perform all manner of tasks, including putting out small field fires. The robot was designed by seven agrotechnology students and is to be presented during the Science Weekend on October 5 and 6.
‘We want to show children how fascinating and fun science and technology is during the Science Weekend’, says agrotechnology student Evelien Looijen. She and three others from her student team will travel to Amsterdam on Saturday, 5 October, to demonstrate their robot Robatic Bullseye, before the general public.
Robatic Bullseye navigates through cornfields independently. Its LiDAR sensors, which use laser pulse technology, enable the robot to identify the location of objects. This allows the robot to find its way among the corn rows and to count the corn plants. The vehicle is also fitted with technology to identify weeds, which can then be precisely sprayed with herbicides.
Automatically detect and neutralise fires
Lastly, the students equipped the robot with hardware and software, enabling it to identify and put out small fires. Looijen: ‘To this end, the robot has been fitted with a multi-spectre camera and a deep learning model to detect field fires. When the robot identifies a fire, it immediately switches to extinguishing mode to put out the fire.’
Looijen and six other students built the robot for the Field Robotic Event, an annual competition that was held in Germany last June. Student teams from various countries compete with robots, which are all designed to perform the same tasks, with the exception of the fire-extinguisher option, which was a freestyle assignment. ‘We were required to make an original addition to the robot. We chose the fire extinguishing option. Although it is not very close to practical implementation, field fires do, indeed, occur’, Looijen states. WUR came in fifth at the Field Robotic Event.
Robots at the Science Weekend
The robot retired for a while after the competition until the team was asked to demonstrate it during the Science Weekend. Looijen: ‘We will be among solar-powered race cars and other robots. Robatic Bullseye is the only agricultural robot.’ WUR and TU Delft’s student team, WDSense, will also join the event with a sensor that measures renal functions. A third WUR team will facilitate a workshop on the Biodiversity Challenge.