IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2013 - 23

Talk
Navigation System of the
Autonomous Agricultural
Robot "BoniRob"

Speaker
Slawomir Grzonka

Institution
Robert Bosch GmbH,
Germany

Image-Based Particle Filtering
for Robot Navigation in a
Maize Field
Development of Robotics Tool
for Agricultural Task
Achievement-The Example
of Robot Formation Control
Automating Orchards: A System
of Autonomous Tractors for
Orchard Maintenance

Santosh Hiremath

Wageningen University
and Research Centre,
Netherlands
IRSTEA, France

Stewart Moorehead

Deere and Company,
USA

A Toolbox for Aerial Image
Acquisition and Its Application
to Precision Agriculture

Kalinka Castelo
Branco

University of São
Paulo, Brazil

Robotic Leaf Probing via
Segmentation of Range Data
into Surface Patches

Babette Dellen

Institut de Robòtica i
Informàtica Industrial,
Spain

Orchard Tree Modeling for
Sprayer Control, Tree Inventory,
and Autonomous Navigation

Carlos Vallespi
Gonzalez

Carnegie Mellon
University, USA

Roland Lenain

Figure 7. Program of the IROS 2012 Workshop on Agricultural Robotics.

example, the best human workers are
capable of picking 40-60 pieces of fruit
per minute, keeping bruising down to
a few percent of the volume picked.
Our community is relatively far from
achieving that level of performance,
but we don't need to get there in one
shot. Many other easier, but equally
valuable operations could benefit from
an intelligent manipulation machine,
including thinning and pruning; these
can be the stepping stones toward a
future harvesting robot.
The second is where robotic systems
result in breakthrough worksite solutions enabling system-of-systems levels
of increased productivity inserted into
the farm production system. This will
require a systems-level design of agricultural R&A technologies beyond the
task-level solutions being sought today.
Systems meant to improve agricultural output and productivity must
be designed with safety in mind,
because of their operation near and
among humans and valuable infrastructure and crops. This is an issue
that needs attention from our community, perhaps at the standards and
regulation level.

Membership in the TC is open to all
interested in contributing to the exciting
field of agricultural robotics and automation. Our mailing list now counts
with 114 members, 40 of whom joined
in 2012-an increase of 54% over the
previous year. More information about
the TC can be found at the Web site:
http://www.fieldrobot.com/ieeeras/ or by
contacting the TC cochair closest to you:
● Marcel Bergerman, Carnegie Mellon
University, marcel@cmu.edu (corresponding chair)
● Eldert van Henten, Wageningen University and Research Center, eldert.
vanhenten@wur.nl
● John Billingsley, University of Southern Queensland, billings@usq.edu.au
● John Reid, Moline Technology Innovation Center, John Deere, ReidJohnF@JohnDeere.com
● Deng Mingcong, Tokyo University of
Agriculture and Technology, deng@
cc.tuat.ac.jp.
(continued on page 125)

Seeking Expressions of Interest
A consortium of international central banks is
seeking expressions of interest to design, build
and supply a device for the simulation of
human-imparted wear on bank notes through
the application of human-like forces and
contacting surfaces.
Organizations that express interest in this
opportunity may be invited to participate in a
request for proposal process.
The Consortium is open to proposals from private
sector, public sector, non-for-profit, and
academic institutions. Proposals including purely
mechanical, mechatronic and robotic solutions
will be considered, provided they adequately
mimic the human/bank note interactions.
To express interest in this opportunity, please
provide a brief description of your organization
and fields of expertise/experience in developing
bespoke mechatronic or robotic applications to
Krysta Charron at kcharron@bankofcanada.ca
Deadline to submit expressions of interest is June 30th, 2013

june 2013

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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23
http://www.fieldrobot.com/ieeeras/
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2013
