agricultural engineering
Development of a electronic SmartHarvest-System for damage-free sugarbeet harvest#
In 2017, the current sugar market regime will cut-off, and the acreage of the German sugar beet crop will substantially increase, thereby enabling a longer processing campaign and cost reduction per unit of sugar. As a consequence, the amount of beets stored in field piles for up to 3 month will increase. Under such conditions, long-term storage assuring low sugar losses is paramount. Storage losses and invert sugar formation are known to increase if the beets were damaged at harvest.
development of a robotic solution for slugs and mice control
Slugs can cause substantial damages in agricultural plant production. Existing methods to fight those slugs do not deliver satisfying results. Therefore the MSR-bot-Project aims to develop a robot that detects slugs and fights them using a manipulator. The planed robot navigates autonomously across agricultural land. It detects slugs using digital image processing. The robot is provided with a control that enables the device to anticipate the development of the slug population.