By Andi Anderson
Students from Southern Illinois University Carbondale are preparing to showcase their innovation and technical skills at an international agricultural robotics competition. Members of the university’s Agricultural Robotics Club have designed and built a robot that can perform important crop management tasks in a simulated corn field.
The competition, organized by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, challenges student teams from different universities to develop robots capable of completing agricultural operations. This year’s challenge focuses on identifying single and double corn stalks and recognizing areas where no corn stalk is present.
Joy Howard, president of the Agricultural Robotics Club and a student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in microbiology with a minor in agronomy, explained the purpose of the challenge. She said, “When you’re really planting crops, you want the corn stalks to be spaced from each other. This way the corn stalks are not competing for resources. If corn is planted too close to each other, farmers get rid of the weaker stalk and keep the stronger one.”
To complete the task, the robot must move through miniature corn rows, detect the number of corn stalks, identify weak and strong plants by color, and remove weaker yellow stalks when necessary. In the advanced category, the robot must also plant a corn seed whenever no corn stalk is found.
Howard and fellow student Nathan Wellendorf started developing the robot in March. They designed a tank-style chassis for improved movement and installed infrared sensors to help the machine follow field rows. The team also created custom 3D-printed components, programmed software, and developed simple AI models.
During testing, the students faced technical challenges. One motor driver overheated and failed under continuous operation. Howard recalled the issue, saying, “The driver was smoking pretty bad. We had to get a new driver that could handle the voltage that we were giving it. It was a challenge we had to figure out.”
Throughout the project, Billy Ram, assistant professor in the School of Agricultural Sciences, guided the team. Ram encouraged students to solve problems independently while learning robotics and precision agriculture technologies.
He said, “My advising style is introducing Joy and Nathan to the tools they need and letting them solve the problems on their own. If you give them a good direction, they can learn. They can come up with the right methods to solve their problems.”
The project highlights the growing role of robotics, AI, and smart technologies in modern farming while helping students develop valuable industry-ready skills. Despite being new competitors, the team remains confident and eager to gain experience for future competitions.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-poike
Categories: Illinois, Education