Flourish – A robotic approach for automation in crop management Ein Robotikansatz zur Automation im Kulturpflanzenmana- gement

The goal of the Flourish project is to bridge the gap between the current and desired capabilities of agricultural robots by developing an adaptable robotic solution for precision farming. Thereby, combining the aerial survey capabilities of a small autonomous multi-copter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with a multi-purpose agricultural Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV), the system will be able to survey a field from the air, perform targeted intervention on the ground, and provide detailed information for decision support, all with minimal user intervention. The system can be adapted to a wide range of farm management activities and different crops by choosing different sensors, status indicators and ground treatment packages. The gathered information can be used alongside existing precision agriculture machinery, for example, by providing position maps for variable rate fertilizer application. The presentation will introduce the Flourish consortium and the concept of this project using the results of the first year field campaign. Two key parts of the project will be shown in more detail: first, the field mapping by means of an UAV. Particularly, the field 3D reconstruction approach (KHANNA et al. 2015) and the use of multi-spectral camera data to derive weed pressure or crop property maps (LIEBISCH et al. 2014) with examples for subsequent crop management decision support. The second part will show the automated image acquisition by the UGV and a subsequent plant classification with a four step pipeline differentiating crop from weed in real time (LOTTES et al. 2016). The presentation will close with a short outlook on not shown project packages like automated orientation and movement of the UAV and UGV and the project’s time line. Liebisch, Pfeifer, Khanna, Lottes, Stachniss, Falck, Sander, Siegwart, Walter, Galceran 21.04.2016 in Wernigerode Hochschule Harz Fachbereich Automatisierung und Informatik 2