Robot assists with agritech field experiments

A mobile robot will help scientists at a UK university to conduct agricultural experiments in the field.

The Thorvald agricultural robot, developed with scientists from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, will support agritech experiments at the University of Lincoln’s agricultural field station.

The robotic platform has been built to perform a wide variety of agricultural tasks, including deployment as a multipurpose lightweight robotic carrying platform; as a sensor platform to monitor crops and soils; and, potentially, as a platform to manage crops and for precision weed control.

It is capable of operating on uneven terrain and agile enough to navigate between rows of crops without touching plants.

Professor Simon Pearson, director of the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology (LIAT), said: “In much of our agritech research, the fields we use are our laboratory, which brings its own technical and logistical challenges with certain experiments.

“The robot will support research on autonomous outdoor navigation and mapping, soil quality assessment, crop yield prediction, in-field logistics and transportation.”