Frontier Fellow 2024-2025:
Teresa Begley
Title of Research Project: “Autonomous Electric Micro-tractor”
Summary:
The project focuses on the use of autonomous technology to reduce workload associated with climate-friendly farming practices on small organic farms. The use of an autonomous micro-tractor for mechanical weeding of plants reduces the need for herbicides, which is important both for the environment and the health of the people in it. The currently implemented navigation algorithm, which is used on the UCSC organic farm, is capable of weeding plant lines, but moving between plant lines requires a human operator maneuvering the micro-tractor. The aim of the project is to address the autonomy of required micro-tractor maneuvers without or very limited human assistance; and to assess the effectiveness of the existing autonomous weeding navigation. This project is a part of a research collaboration on autonomy or small organic farming between Prof. Dejan Milutinovic, Robotic and Control Lab, and Dr. Darryl Wong, Center for Agroecology, who are Teresa’s advisors on this project.