Dextrous Robotic Manipulation for Automated Potato Planting

泽西州农民联盟是一个成立的协会，其宗旨是促进农业发展，并代表泽西州的农学家。泽西岛的农业每年生产3万至4万吨泽西皇家新土豆，每天有多达1000吨的土豆出口到该岛。由于缺乏劳动力和工资的增加，该行业在其主要产品泽西皇家新土豆的种植过程中面临着相当大的技术挑战，但由于现场恶劣的物理环境条件以及成本限制，过程的自动化是不容易的。本项目旨在通过开展泽西农场马铃薯种植自动化的机器人操作研究来应对这些挑战。本项目将探索马铃薯种薯从储藏到土壤的低成本快速处理技术。将开发一些配备抓取末端执行器的低成本铰接式机械臂，并以合理的速度、精度和可靠性进行测试。我们还将探索移动平台的简约解决方案，使种植平台可以移动。平台自主导航将不会是本项目的主要目标，因为它将显著延长部署成本，而是在现有解决方案的基础上寻找可行的解决方案，例如扩展现有拖拉机，或低成本移动机器人平台。移动平台将集成到上面的传感和操纵组件中。

The Jersey Farmers' Union is an association which was formed with the aim of the advancement of agriculture and to represent agriculturists in Jersey. The agriculture industry produces 30k-40k tonnes of Jersey Royal new potatoes annually in the Island of Jersey, and up to 1000 tonnes are exported daily out of the island. The industry faces a considerable technological challenge in the planting of their main product, Jersey Royal new potatoes, because of the lack of labourers and the increase of wages, but the automation of the processes is nontrivial due to the difficult physical environmental conditions on sites as well as the cost constraints.This project aims to tackle the challenges by carrying our the research of robotic manipulation for the automation of potato planting on Jersey Farms. Technologies for low-cost rapid handling of seed potatoes from the storage to soil will be explored in this project. Some low-cost articulated robotic arms equipped with grasping end-effectors will be developed and tested with the reasonable speed, accuracy, and reliability. We will also explore the minimalistic solutions for locomotion platform, such that the planting platform can be mobilised. The autonomous navigation of platform is not going to be the main target of this project as it would significantly extend the deployment cost, but to find a feasible solution based on existing solutions e.g. extension of existing tractors, or low-cost mobile robot platforms. The locomotion platform will be integrated to the sensing and manipulation component above.