AgriApps – An App-based Solution for Field-Robot-Based Agriculture

Today agriculture has to deal with an increasing cost pressure. Innovative Field-Robot-Based solutions can help to handle this challenge. Until now, such systems are not profitable and technically mature for commercial use. In the project AgriApps these issues are addressed. An application based system is developed where a carrier platform can be equipped with different apps. This allows the usage of the system throughout the year to handle different tasks. Thus such a system is profitable for end users. To evaluate the developed concepts. an app for mechanical weed control in special cultures was developed. It consists of a multi-sensor setup for plants and weed detection and a manipulator for digging the soil around the plants. This not only removes the weed but also provides better water absorption for the plants. The app is finally tested on the BoniRob platform, which is the reference platform in this project. A novelty and major contribution of the project is the general definition and specification of the interface between robot and the apps, which covers mechanical and electrical issues as well as the information flow, static and dynamic working area descriptions and energy demand management. The general approach of the interface specification is not limited on robotics, especially it can be transferred to working implements on mobile machinery. 1. Motivation and Overview of the AgriApps Aproach Today field robots systems are leaving the labs and prototype stage and entering the market [6], especially in vegetable gardening, nurseries, viniculture and orcharding. Beside the technical feasibility and robustness of this robots, economic efficiency is a key factor for a successful and sustainable commercial usage and acceptance of these systems. Generally there are two ways to meet the demands of economic efficiency: Either to built specialized cost effective machines for a single task which has to be performed often or like our approach in the AgriApps project design a multi-purpose system: An application based system was developed where a carrier platform can be equipped with different apps. This allows to use the system throughout the year to handle different tasks. Thus such a system is profitable for end users. To evaluate the developed concepts an app for mechanical weed control (see Fig. 1) in special cultures, like boxwood in nurseries, has been developed. It consists of a multi-sensor setup for plants and weed detection and a manipulator for digging the soil around the plants. This not only removes the weed but also provides better water absorption for the plants. In order to achieve an efficient and areal regulation of weed in boxwood cultivations, the AgriApps project follows a mechanical approach poaching up the ground thus disrooting weeds while in addition aerating the soil at the same time. For this approach, an application module consisting of a manipulator and a camera setup has been designed and constructed. The manipulator uses several rotating harrows mounted on a linear unit which can be lowered to the ground along a cantilever. Fig. 1 Field robot Bonirob and App-Concept for mechanical weed regulation: Other Apps like e.g. for cutting of the plants or precision plant protection / spraying purposes can be used on the same robot and in the same application domain. This paper is organized as follows: in Chapter 2 the functionality of the mobile robot base is discussed and in Chapter 3 the functionalities of the app for mechanical weed regulation are explained. These are the functionalities of sensing and classification and the synchronized mobile manipulation which have been designed and built with a more general approach. In Chapter 4 the scope of the general specifications in the project of the interface between mobile base and app is shown. Finally in Chapter 5 first results in field tests are shown. Further aspects in the project AgriApps which are beyond the scope of this paper are the evaluation of safety issues and the later admission for operation for such a robotic system as well as the development of an innovative energy sourcing system (see [1]) based on fuel cell