Semi-autonomous systems enable advances in Earth Observation
KAUST Research Conference on Robotics and Autonomy 2023
Speaker: Matthew McCabe, Professor, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Abstract:
The description and characterization of the Earth system is a field that routinely leverages technological advances to improve our understanding of diverse ecosystems. One of the most promising areas of application is the use of autonomous and semi-autonomous platforms in precision agriculture. Such systems are capable of performing data collection, analysis, and decision-making tasks with minimal human intervention. The Hydrology, Agriculture, and Land Observation (HALO) laboratory at KAUST is at the forefront of this technology, employing a combination of satellites, UAVs and most recently - an agile robot from Boston Dynamics - in a semi-autonomous way to analyze and explore a range of ecosystems. A focus of current research is the collection of data for crop phenotyping, carbon accounting, and water-energy-carbon nexus studies. To this end, UAVs are employed to collect high-resolution images of crops from multi-spectral, hyperspectral, thermal, and LiDAR sensors, with the ground-based robot used to complement and augment these datasets. The combination of these platforms provides a more comprehensive and multi-view characterization of the studied system. Future goals aim to integrate collected information into a more intelligent and autonomous framework, allowing individual platforms to perform tasks such as collective exploration, perception, and localization.
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Conference:
The KAUST Research Conference on Robotics and Autonomy 2023 (RobotoKAUST 2023)
Organizing Committee:
Eric Feron, Shinkyu Park, Raquel Peixoto
Date:
08-10 May 2023
Venue:
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Website:
https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/robotokaust
Organization team and volunteers:
Mohamad T. Shahab, Renzo Caballero, Angelica Coronado Preciado, Kuat Telegenov, Mohammed Aldosari, Katja Gorenflot, Jumana Alashi, Hanouf Al-Hattan, Rehab Ashri, Marta Golem, Adeel Akhtar, Jun Chen, Abdullah Alharthi, Altayeb-Moh'd A. Al-Shedayfat, Amin Almozel, Nawaf Alotaibi, Shatha Alzahrani, Lucas Câmara Dantas Bezerra, Salman Ghori, Arman Ibrayeva, Anton Kim, Bilal Maassarani, Obadah Wali, Joanna M. Ogieglo, Norah Alghamdi
The KAUST Robotics, Intelligent Systems, and Control (RISC) Lab:
https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/risclab