I-Corps Teams Program: Autonomous Robotic Mower applied to Labor Shortage in Landscaping

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是解决景观美化机构劳动力短缺问题的一个解决方案。目前解决员工招聘和保留问题的方法缺乏技术创新。首先，园林绿化组织雇佣更多的员工来抵消辞职的员工，支付更高的工资，参加招聘会，在报纸/网络上发布广告，并雇用H2B工人。劳工部的H2B签证项目提供了大约10%的园林绿化工作人员。根据各种来源，包括面对面的客户访谈，园林绿化行业的劳动力短缺是抑制园林绿化公司增长的主要因素。这个研究小组正在开发一种产品，以帮助美国小企业继续为他们的客户服务并发展他们的业务。这个I-Corps项目提出机器人技术来帮助解决劳动力短缺问题。利用机器人嵌入式技术，研究团队实现了先进的算法来引导机器人原型沿着用户定义的轨迹运行。该产品的机电一体化设计与算法开发相结合，为机器人原型的未来带来了希望。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is a solution to the labor shortage problem in landscaping organizations. Current solutions to the employee recruitment and retention problem lack technological innovation. Primarily, landscaping organizations hire more employees to offset resigning employees, pay higher wages, attend careers fairs, post newspaper/online ads, and hire H2B workers. The Department of Labor H2B visa program supplies approximately 10% of the landscaping workforce. According to a variety of sources, including in-person customer interviews, labor shortages in the landscaping industry are a major factor inhibiting landscaping companies' growth. This research team is developing a product to assist American small business with continuing to serve their customers and grow their businesses. This I-Corps project proposes robotic technology to help solve the labor shortage problem. Using robotic embedded technology the research team has implemented advanced algorithms to guide a robot prototype along a user defined trajectory. The mechatronic design of the product combined with the algorithm development gives hopeful insight into robotic prototypes' future.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.