Systems integration

Autonomous orchard navigation and targeted application

Overview

Integrating sensing, navigation, weed perception, and spray control on a Farm-ng Amiga for orchard field testing.

Watch demonstrations

Fully integrated Farm-ng Amiga research platform with onboard computers, cameras, LiDAR, GNSS, control interfaces, and spray-system hardware

Current robot: Farm-ng Amiga
Compute: NVIDIA Jetson
Middleware: ROS 2 Humble
Sensing: Stereo vision · LiDAR · IMU

Servo Nozzle Module Unit Configuration

Annotated orchard spray bar showing fixed/swivel nozzles N1 and N2, inward-oriented N3, and an inset of N3 beside an apple tree trunk — Nozzle configurations used for the field spray-performance evaluation, showing N1, N2, and N3 in fixed or swivel operating modes. When fixed inward, N3 was maintained at 35° toward the intra-row treatment zone; the inset shows its position relative to the tree trunk.

Integrated field-system performance

Field demonstrations of the integrated robotic spraying system, including the all-swiveling servo nozzle configuration.

Observed field operation

Continuous orchard-row operation: The integrated platform moved through the apple row under realistic field conditions.
Stable intra-row alignment: The servo-nozzle assembly remained positioned over the intra-row treatment strip.
Clearance near trunks: The prototype passed close to tree trunks without visible mechanical interference.

Research Challenge

A laboratory spraying mechanism becomes useful only when the entire system can navigate, localize, decide, and act reliably in variable orchard conditions.

Engineering Approach

Fuse wheel odometry, IMU, and LiDAR for orchard-row navigation.
Deploy stereo-vision weed perception on the onboard GPU.
Compensate for vehicle motion and camera-to-nozzle travel time.
Evaluate navigation, spray targeting, reliability, and recovery across orchard conditions.

System configuration

Robotic platforms used: 2
Integrated sensing modalities: 3+
Autonomy architecture: ROS 2
Orchard-row performance testing: Field

Significance

The platform connects weed perception with targeted spray control in orchard conditions.