ARCHIE, Agri Robot for Crop Health in Insect Control

Agricultural robots meet increased efficiency, productivity, and environmental goals while possibly reducing input costs. Project ARCHIE (Agricultural Robot for Crop Health in InsEct control) aims to transform the current local agricultural landscape by developing an agricultural robot prototype integrating an AI-based vision system, a controlled spraying module, and a navigation platform. The project offers a solution converting from broad-spraying to controlled pesticide spraying by scanning lettuce crops for insects and spraying only when and where needed. Consequently, pesticide run-off in soil, water, and the air becomes minimal, and farmers save on farming input costs while minimizing exposure to agrochemicals. Most commercial agrirobots specialize in weed detection and control; ARCHIE focuses on insect detection and control.

• General Objective

To develop a low fidelity Vision and Sprayer System for Agrirobots, the ARCHIE prototype, for insect-pest detection using AI and integrated with a spraying mechanism for lettuce crops, with testing in actual field conditions.

• To develop an artificial-intelligence-based vision system using transfer learning.
• To build a nozzle-mounted spraying mechanism.
• To integrate both hardware and software and test in actual field.