2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Peanut Trials on Raised Beds with Indoor and Outdoor FarmBot Setups

Presented at Biological & Agricultural Division Technical Session

FarmBots are three-axis Cartesian robots quite similar to 3D printers that run on Raspberry Pi 3 and Arduino-like microprocessor boards. These machines can seed, kill weeds, sense soil-moisture content, and irrigate plants individually over the raised bed area they serve. FarmBots can be manipulated using web applications over smartphones. The Raspberry Pi Camera (Pi-Cam) integrated with the machine can be used for weed detection and time-lapse photography.

FarmBot efforts on campus are integral to the ongoing “Smart Farming” project. The “Smart Farming” project leaders at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) have engaged undergraduate engineering and computer science students with graduate students in the Food Science and Technology (FDST) program to promote education and research efforts aligned with the land grant mission of the campus, regional priorities of the eastern shore region and objectives outlined in extramurally funded projects supported by National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA/USDA). As part of the project, students have engaged in growing specialty crops using FarmBots (http://farm.bot) in an outdoor 10ft by 20ft raised bed inside a tunnel house powered by solar and wind energy, as well as an indoor setup on a 5ft by 10ft bed with LED-grow lights. Rainwater harvesting capability is being developed for the outdoor set-up for the irrigation needs of the crops served by the robot. The setup is envisioned to be a novel demonstration platform for a small-scale autonomous sustainable food production system that uses a robotic device, as well as renewable energy and rainwater harvesting suitable for a variety of settings including urban and suburban regions. The indoor set-up allows changing the photoperiod for growing specialty crops.

For the field trials outlined in this paper, “peanuts” were chosen as the specialty crop to grow in both the outdoor and indoor FarmBot beds. This allowed the project leaders to discuss the contributions of and the legacy of Dr. George Washington Carver an eminent African American scientist who developed more than 300 products from peanuts. The field trials involved studying the effects of inoculating the peanut seeds with rhizobium leguminosarum bacteria and different irrigation levels on the harvest.

Authors

Dr. Abhijit Nagchaudhuri University of Maryland, Eastern Shore [biography]

Dr. Abhijit Nagchaudhuri is currently a Professor in the Department of Engineering and Aviation Sciences at University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He is a member American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and American Society for Engineering Education. He is actively involved in teaching and research in the areas of robotics/mechatronics, precision agriculture and remote sensing, and biofuels/renewable energy.
Dr. Madhumi Mitra, Ph.D. University of Maryland, Eastern Shore [biography]

Dr. Madhumi Mitra is a tenured full professor of Biological and Environmental sciences in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). She is the coordinator of biology and chemistry education programs at UMES. She has received her doctoral degree in Plant Biology from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. Her B.S. and M.S degrees are in Botany from the Presidency College (now Presidency University) and University of Calcutta, India respectively. She is also the recipient of a master’s degree in the nation’s first-degree program in Medical Cannabis Science and Therapeutics from the School of Pharmacy from the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) in 2021. Two of her students in Biology Education have been the recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), which is the highest honors bestowed by the United States government specifically for STEM teachers. One of her students was awarded the Maryland Teacher of the Year award in 2019. Her research interests and expertise include micro and macroalgal ecology; seaweeds in human health and nutrition; biomonitoring and biosorption potential of seaweeds and seagrasses; bioenergy from algae; water quality; and sustainable robotic farming with applications of seaweeds as biostimulants. She is the recipient of various research and teaching awards, and has published in many peer-reviewed journals and proceedings, and presented her research at national and international conferences. She also co-edited and coauthored a book on Bioenergy with Springer Academic Publishers in 2020. She is currently working on her second book on Artificial Intelligence in the 21st Century for CRC Press (a Taylor and Francis group). Dr. Mitra has given keynote addresses at international conferences on Bioenergy and related disciplines in the STEM areas. She holds a strong record of competitive funding from federal and state agencies. She has been a recipient of more than 15 million dollars grants as a principal and a co-principal investigator. She has served in various leadership roles for many professional organizations. She was the Division Chair of the Energy Conversion and Conservation Division (ECCD) of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). She has also served on the Board of Directors for Assateague Coastal Trust (ACT) for more than five years; serves as a member of the commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of ASEE; and have been an advocate for renewable energy and climate change.
Mr. Jesu Raj Pandya University of Maryland, Eastern Shore [biography]

Currently a doctoral student in Food & Agriculture Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES),
MSc - Applied Computer Sciences at UMES,
BSc - Electrical and Electronical Engineering ( JNTU).

Interest in robotics and automation in food production and food safety.

Download paper (1.04 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session