The Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) is providing seed funding for a research project at Illinois that will reduce manual labor costs in small urban farming operations.
The project — RobInHighTs (Robot Integrated High Tunnels) — is geared to create profitable food oases in urban ecosystems. RobInHighTs will use AI-powered robotics to automate operations for high tunnels at the Sustainable Student Farm — leading to improved crop yields, reduced manual labor costs and higher profits.
High tunnels are ephemeral, curved metal structures covered with greenhouse plastic that are ideal for growing plants on small urban farms. Cost-effective and adaptable, these high tunnels can extend the growing season, protect against severe weather, increase crop yields, and improve the quality of fruits, vegetables, and cut flowers. They have gained popularity over the last two decades in the urban and peri-urban setting due to their cost-effectiveness, adaptability and low environmental costs.
Though advantageous, high tunnels require an extra degree of management to ensure a quality crop and good production rates as the urban environment brings new challenges with unique pests and soil quality. Sustenance and economic viability of urban high tunnels are thus limited by the shortage and rising inequities in urban agricultural workforce. The primary objective of the proposal is to demonstrate that the RobInHighTs platform can greatly automate routine high tunnel operations leading to increased crop yield and reduced manual intervention, while simultaneously preserving soil quality for sustained use.
The team's approach, guided by our past research, will integrate compact mobile platforms and novel hybrid soft-rigid manipulators within high tunnel environments in the Illinois Student Sustainability Farm, and demonstrate the potential to
navigate autonomously through rows of crops in high tunnels use AI-powered perception to identify targets such as berries, leaves and possible pests perform fine dexterous manipulation tasks such as berry harvesting, pruning and precision spraying. Furthermore, the proposal seeks to understand and evaluate the economic implications of such a platform, barriers to entry for urban and minority farmers, and scalable business models for industry involvement through focused group surveys, workshop demonstrations and other extension activities.
Categories: Illinois, Business