Graduate Studies
First Advisor
Santosh K. Pitla
Second Advisor
Yeyin Shi
Third Advisor
Yufeng Ge
Date of this Version
12-2023
Citation
A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science
Major: Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering
Under the supervision of Professor Santosh K. Pitla
Lincoln, Nebraska, December 2023
Abstract
Agricultural mechanization has allowed farmers to produce food on a large scale more efficiently and profitably. Consequently, agrarian automation has been widely adopted in farming activities such as planting, harvesting, fertilization, and livestock management because of their laborious work nature and the time necessary to complete them. Agricultural mechanization poses challenges, such as environmental degradation from spraying chemicals and soil compaction. One of the leading causes of soil compaction is the use of high axle load machinery; some of the proposed solutions to limit soil compaction are the use of multiple small machines to reduce pressure on the soil and finding new ways for material transfer of seeds, chemicals, and fertilizer among agricultural machinery. Conventional material refilling can lead to poor field efficiency and increased soil compaction due to multiple passes from the material refill trips to the planter or harvesting machinery. This project will explore a collaboration architecture between Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for material refilling in agricultural operations. UGV will be used as a planter with a seed tank, and UAV will be used as a tender vehicle to refill the UGV seed hopper using a system we call U2AGV-Refill. This will help address the knowledge gap in UAV and UGV collaboration in agricultural applications.
Advisor: Santosh K. Pitla
Comments
Copyright 2023, Herve Mwunguzi