EarthSense co-founders Ghirish Chowdhary and Chinmay Soman

This professor wanted to make farming more sustainable so he started a company to build a fleet of smart robots

Small robots can give growers access to valuable data about crop health at a new level of precision and efficiency.

By: Emily Dao || theRising 

Girish Chowdhary holds the robot with two other people.

A growing presence on the farm: Robots

A new generation of autonomous robots is helping plant breeders shape the crops of tomorrow.

By: Knvul Sheikh || New York Times

The 21st Show Logo

'TerraSentia,' An R2-D2 For Farmers?

TerraSentia can help support farmers in the work that they do - by collecting data automatically, which is a process that is otherwise time-consuming and expensive.

By : 21st Show

EarthSense

EarthSense receives 2018 Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize

EarthSense, a company that develops ultracompact autonomous robots for crop breeders, agronomists, and growers, is the recipient of the second Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize. 

By: Research Park at the University of Illinois

 

robot

UI professor develops farming robot to alleviate labor costs, increase efficiency

Researchers at the University developed robots to help farmers of the Midwest tend to their fields. 

By : Veronica Mierek | Daily Illini

field

Robots could be help shape the future of farming in Illinois

Robots developed by researchers at the University of Illinois are helping Midwest farmers in the fields.

By: Illinois News Network

TerraSentia

Cross a John Deere with a Roomba, and you get this crop-monitoring robot

Farms are a hotbed for automation. Robots, drones, and artificial intelligence have been assisting in agriculture for years and 2017 showed they could farm an acre and a half of barley, from planting to tending and harvesting, without a human stepping foot on the field.

By: Dyllan Furness | Digital Trends

robot

Autonomous robot works plant canopy

An agricultural robot that monitors crops under the plant-canopy level could facilitate crop scouting and help farmers to keep plant diseases or insect infestations from spreading. The robot – called TerraSentia – was developed at the University of Illinois and recently was featured at the Ag Innovation Showcase in St. Louis.

By: Lynn Grooms | Agri-View

robot

Ag robot now on the market

An agricultural robot developed at the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences hit the commercial market at the recent Ag Innovation Showcase in St. Louis.

By: Kay Shipman | FarmWeek

u of i

U of I scientists envision robot crop scouts doing farm dirty work

University of Illinois engineers developed technology to efficiently handle the uncomfortable, tedious work of crop scouting while enhancing critical information. Meet TERRA-MEPP, a small, boxy robot that excited visitors during U of I Agronomy Day.  

By: Kay Shipman | FarmWeek

robot

Down on the farm with C-3PO

Researchers at the University of Illinois have come up with a robot that can methodically wander fields and beam back stunningly perceptive crop reports. Weaving its way through a farm on a track system, the super-perceptive farmhand grabs detailed information on each and every plant it passes.

By: Joe Dysart | Communications for the ACM

farm hand

Meet your next farm hand

Meet Esther. She can get up with the chickens, work from dawn until dusk and will never require an IRS Form 1099. What she might one day do is continuously scout your crops and collect important growing data that can be used to make agronomic decisions.

By: Pamela Smith | Progressive Farmer