Project tests ability of robot to adjust irrigation systems
ByKathyCoatney It’s called Robotic-Assisted Precision Irrigation and Diagnostics—RAPID— and Universi ty of California re- searchers hoped to finishanexper- iment in Central Valley vineyards this summer, us- ing a robot to ad- just irrigationemitters ongrapvines. Then came the pandemic. “Everything went off rail because of COVID-19, sowewill probably finishnext summer,” according to Stefano Carpin, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at UCMerced. Carpin is collaborating on the RAPID project with Ken Goldberg, a professor at UC Berkeley; Josh Viers, professor of civ- il and environmental engineering at UC Merced; and Stavros Vougioukas, profes- sorof biological andagricultural engineer- ing at UCDavis. The project, which started in the sum- merof 2016, receivedfunding fromtheU.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the NationalRobotics Initiativeof theNational ScienceFoundation. The idea for theproj-
ect came during the drought in 2015. Theresearchstartedwithgrapes,Carpin said, because the crop is sensitive and de- pends on fine irrigation adjustments. “Growing grapes is an art and science, and precision application of water is criti- cal to a successful crop,” he said. Farmers strive for irrigation uniformity so thegrapes ripenuniformly,Carpinsaid, and keeping the water level and the soil uniformhelps in increasing uniformity. “With vineyards, it was particularly trickybecause toomuchwater leads tobad wine,”he said. “So inasense itwaswalking this fine line. Itwas saying, if yougive it too little, you’re going to overstress the vine, and it may end up dying,” which he said could result in large financial losses. “When stress-irrigating, growers want to be a tad below optimal irrigation,” Carpin said. In their conversations with growers, he and his colleagues learned that irrigation uniformity canhave its downsides. For ex- ample, soilswereirrigatedthesame,wheth- er sand or clay. One grower commented it wouldbeideal ifhecouldadjust theamount of water delivered to every vine—“custom- ized irrigation, so tospeak,”he said. Carpin said whenever he sees a prob-
An experiment in Central Valley vineyards evaluates whether a robot can help farmers maintain the appro- priate amount of water reaching indi- vidual grapevines.
lem, his immediate response is to search for a robotic solution. Often, it’s thought that robotics are replacing employees, but in agriculture that’s not necessarily so, he stressed. Instead, robots are assisting em- ployees to bemore productive. Carpin and his colleagues are conduct- ing their research in the Central Valley where, he said, theheat anddustmade for
a good testing ground for sensitive equip- ment todetermine if the robotwouldwork well in different environments. They started the research by determin- ing howmuch water was in the soil, then moved on to adjustable emitters, with the next stepbeing todevelopa robot thatuses
See ROBOT, Page 20
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October 7, 2020 Ag Alert 9
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