PHOTOS: CROPHOPPER
ROBOT TECHNOLOGY ▶▶▶
Jumping robot helps farming robotics take a big leap forward
BY MICK ROBERTS P
art drone, part hopper, the CropHop- per is designed to jump across fields to scan crops, identify weeds and diseas- es, as well as to carry out mechanical
weeding and spot spraying. Key to its operation and endurance is a carbon-fibre jumping leg. This has two flexible arms that look like an ar- chery bow. These are tensioned and bent into the bow shape by an electric winding mecha- nism. When the tension is released, the bow arms spring back to their original shape and in the process propel the CropHopper into the air. About half way into the jump four propellers engage to increase the travel distance and sof- ten the landing. Then it takes high-quality pic- tures very close to the ground so that it can identify problems less than 1mm in size. The process is then repeated, as it hops across the field every four seconds.
CropHopper is the brainchild of Fred Miller, the CEO and founder of HayBeeSee. Born in Lon- don, but with farming connections in the USA, Fred studied aeronautical engineering at Im- perial College London. Unlike a drone, which requires a battery change or recharge every 20-30 mins, the CropHopper can cover about 70 ha in a day on three charges or battery changes. In the future it’s planned that it will propel itself to a charging station, where it will automatically recharge or change batteries. An intruder alarm will notify users of any interfer- ence and, if necessary, it can fly away.
Energy-efficient The jumping robot is designed to operate auto- nomously with minimum supervision. As it hops across fields in 10m spaced grid-points, it stops and takes 12m³ of high-resolution images, which are processed to detect weeds or pests. It is anticipated that it will also apply spot sprays or in future destroy weeds with an on-board ro- tary hoe. By making 10m jumps every 3-4 sec- onds, it’s able to cover 3 ha in just 20 mins, pro-
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By combining the propellers of a quadcopter with an ingenious jumping mechanism, CropHopper is able to quickly travel across fields and work for much longer than a drone. It weighs 3kg, costs € 15/ha, can operate without an operator, it can work in-crop all season and it offers the potential to also automatically treat weeds, pests and diseases.
ducing an overall workrate of about 9 ha/hr (i.e. about 70 ha/day). Images are processed instant- ly on board and sent to the cloud. There they can be viewed in real time and exported to agronomy software to develop application plans for sprays and inform other CropHopper actions like spot spraying.
HayBeeSee is developing its own software, with algorithms that are already able to identi- fy weeds as well as spot pests and diseases on leaves. It’s also possible to set alarms to alert users in real time if it detects problems exceed- ing certain thresholds or imminent threats like disease. “CropHopper can cover more ground, more easily than a drone or quadcopter be- cause it jumps, which saves a huge amount of
energy. This means it can be used more often and for longer, gathering huge amounts of data,” explains Fred.
HayBeeSee’s agronomist Lawrence Couzens sees a massive opportunity in areas where oth- er solutions have failed to deliver. “Time win- dows for spraying and other actions are ex- tremely tight,” he says. “The key to data making an impact in farming is collecting ground-level resolution images that clearly show pests. Then processing and delivering maps to farm- ers and agronomists fast enough for them to make a range of decisions.” To overcome this challenge, CropHopper will work every two days, which is frequent enough to spot the first aphids in the crop during spring. Trials also
The 3 kg CropHopper is a result of Fred Miller’s aeronautical engineering experience as well as Dr Kovac’s and Dr Siddall’s biologically-inspired jumping and flying robots expertise.
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 22 May 2020
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