Precision Pollination Robot

One of the major issues concerning current agricultural production is crop pollination. Approximately $24 billion worth of crops in the U.S. rely on pollination by various pollinators. However, the recent decline of honey bees (i.e. colony collapse disorder) has greatly threatened productivity. Declines of other native pollinators, such as different insect types and animals, have also been reported. Such shortages of pollinators in the U.S. have significantly increased the cost of farmers’ renting them for pollination services. From both economic and food sustainability points of view, there is an urgent need to seek alternative pollination systems. In this USDA-funded project, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers propose to develop a prototype of precision pollination robot for bramble (e.g. blackberry and raspberry) pollination in a greenhouse environment. Instead of building bee-like flying robots, which is difficult to achieve the stability and duration required for precision interaction, the project team will use a robotic arm carried by a ground rover for precise flower manipulation.