Pioneering Advanced Hardware and Computing for Agriculture

Plants interact with their environments above and below ground, shaping their growth, health, and adaptability. Decoding these interactions at a biological level is key to driving sustainable agriculture, but field-based systems have long struggled to measure such complexities at scale.

The Automation and Sensing team integrates above and below ground robotics, nanotechnology, and advanced computing to decode plant communications. These innovations will provide real-time, plant-driven decision-making in agriculture, where plants signal their requirements or are provided triggers that generate a plant response. The tools and models developed through this work lay the foundation for a more resilient future in agriculture.

Leads: Robert Shepherd, Meagan Lang

Senior Personnel: Taryn Bauerle, Abe Stroock, Hakim Weatherspoon

Research Goals: The team focuses on creating tools and systems to:

  • Capture Plant Signals: Develop field-ready technologies to measure biological, chemical, and optical parameters directly from plants.
  • Use hybrid robotics to study above- and belowground components of plants, including roots, shoots, and the rhizosphere.
  • Build data systems that assimilate multiple sources of data and apply models to make intervention recommendations

Objectives:

  • Design and deploy micro- and nanotechnologies for in-situ plant measurement and response.
  • Develop agile robotics for high-throughput interactions with plant systems in field environments.
  • Create integrative models that connect plant biology with environmental data to predict and improve plant performance.