A process map of managing multiple data sources such as soil nutrient, compaction and moisture information as well as high resolution imagery sources to lead to agronomic decisions. Includes methods used for meeting the expectations of prescription map resolution for the turf industry.

Experiences shared about executing precision boundary and variable rate maps with individual nozzle control. Includes a dealer’s perspective on user training and service frequency to meet market demands.

Our presentation will include our project’s evolution from the beginning to what it is today. We will touch base on all of the components that were used in order to make this machine autonomous, as well as fully functional in modern day production agriculture. Our goal is to educate people on what ideas succeeded, as well as which ones failed. We have data to show the functionality of our AgBot, and we will be explaining the benefits to producers and consumers of how large scale automation in agriculture is feasible in years to come. 

Sam Dietrich, Caleb Friedrick, Joshua Friedrick, and Dean Kertai of the University of Regina Ag Robotics team will talk about their first place finish in the Ag Bot competition this year. 

Rockville Indiana opened the door of a new era of agriculture through the agbot competition held in May this year. The competition attracted a variety of autonomous corn planting prototypes.  The University of Regina agbot winning solution complements existing machinery to provide dual functionality between manual and fully autonomous modes. An intuitive ground control station software is used to command and control the agbot, as well as display real time feedback. Software on the tractor includes navigation and control using the feedback of a RTK-GPS. Despite the trend in farming to use WAAS, RTK-GPS has many advantages including accuracy and repeatability, where WAAS fails due to drift. Simple off the shelf actuators and sensors can be used in cascaded closed loop control to execute planned missions. Fully autonomous robots can help us farm, but the implementation of autonomy should not be at the cost of control and maintenance for users.