Research & Development Request

Spain

A Spanish technology centre specialised in industrial design and production is preparing a project aimed to develop a new concept of cable driven robot for agriculture. The proposal will be submitted to the call SFS-05-2017: Robotics Advances for Precision Farming. The coordinator seeks two types of partners: farmers, to act as end-users to provide the real scenario and use case requirements, and agro-food / agriculture R&D institutions to provide know-how on related subjects.

Robotics technologies have achieved a tremendous level of maturity, especially for industrial and medical applications. However, this advancement has not reached agricultural. This project aims to develop a new concept of cable driven robot (low weight) for agriculture. It will include several robot tools to enable any type of agriculture operation and it will be easy to use by workers / farmers during their daily tasks. Its validation will be demonstrated in selected real scenarios.
Specific objectives:
• O1. Development of a new concept of cable driven robot (low weight) for agriculture.
• O2. Inclusion of a robot tool to enable any type of agriculture operation.
• O3. Achievement of a usable HMI (Human Machine Interface) to ease worker / farmer daily tasks.
• O4. Development of the vision and control system to correctly guide and move the robot. Additional sensors to be included.
• O5. Demonstration of robot operability selected scenarios
• O6. Environmental robot analysis to achieve a more sustainable and eco-friendly robot.
Project tasks will be oriented to Requirements collection, Robot and tool development, Perception and actuation systems, HMI and Sensors development, Integration, use case and validation, Environmental analysis and sustainability, Dissemination, exploitation and standardization and Coordination and project management.
Framework programme conditions:
Evaluation scheme: RIA - Research and Innovation Action
Funding scheme: collaborative project.
EOI deadline: January 16th 2017.
Call deadline: February 14th 2017.
Project duration: 36 months.
Type and role of the partners sought:
- Farmers: they will provide their farming areas (crops proposed under their requirements) where the robot will be tested. They will provide robots requirements in relation to the activities to be done: harvesting, irrigation, planting seed, etc. (the robot will include a tool which will enable to do each task).
- Agro-food / Agriculture R&D institutions: they will collaborate closely with farmers to support testing in real scenarios. They will also provide their knowhow to include new technologies within the robot to enlarge their sustainability (reduce the use of pesticides including new technologies in the robot, apply their own technology substances for crop treatment etc.)

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