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Biological Systems Engineering News: Karkee

Drones and bird pests

Stewart Bohnet

June 1, 2022  |  WSU Insider

Photo of drone over crop fieldAutomated drones could scare birds off agricultural fields

A Washington State University research team has developed a system for scaring birds, which they detail in a study published in the journal Computer and Electronics in Agriculture. The system is designed to have automated drones available 24 hours a day to scare pest birds, like European starlings or crows, that cost growers millions of dollars a year in lost fruit.

“Growers don’t really have a good tool they can rely on for deterring pest birds at an affordable price,” said Manoj Karkee, associate professor in WSU’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering and the study’s corresponding author. “With further refinement and industry partnerships, this system could work.”

For now, the birds are scared off just by the motion and whirring noises made by drones. But Karkee said that sounds, like distress calls or predatory bird noises, could be added. Builders could even design special drones for the job.

… continue reading the article, WSU Insider, 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WSU Flower Thinning Robot

Stewart Bohnet

Photo of robot thinning plantsApril 26, 2022  |  Wake Up Northwest on NBC Right Now.com

Manoj Karkee reports that WSU’s Agricultural Automation group of the Biological Systems Engineering Department has just begun testing their newest robot. The robot is aimed to produce a more stable and efficient pollination and thinning process. The Robotic Pollinator is built with a camera that can detect flower blossoms and determine which need to be pollinated or thinned. Students are currently trying to find the right stage to pollinate the fruit flowers. This comes from trial and error.

Dr. Karkee is trying to develop a robotic solution that would have a camera that works like human eyes to take pictures and works with a “brain”, a kind of artificial intelligence model running on a computer, that detects flowers, locates them and sends the signal to the controller of the robot. This signals the robot where to start thinning the flowers. Karkee thinks the method could also replace honeybees when the robot learns to pollinate flowers.

To view the rest of this news, click on the following link: NBC Right Now, KNDO23 / KNDU25   

 

 

 

 

 

Three Minute Thesis – Uddhav Bhattarai wins the CAHNRS PhD Competition

Stewart Bohnet

Photo of Uddhav Bhattarai

Uddhav Bhattarai has won the PhD CAHNRS 3 Minute Competition. He will compete at the WSU wide competition.

Congratulations Uddhav and Good Luck during the next phase!!

CAHNRS 2022 – 3 Minute thesis Results

 

 

PhD

  1. Uddhav Bhattarai – BSE – $1000 (Presentation Title: Robot Laborers for Apple Crop Management) – won tie-breaker and will advance to the University-level competition.
  2. Ramesh Sahni – BSE – $1000 (Presentation Title: Fixed spray system: Every drop to the drop)
  3. Sudha Upadhaya, Plant Path – $500 (Presentation Title: Can a picture save thousands of plants?)

Masters

  1. Em Rendleman, Entomology – $1,000 (Presentation Title:Experimental Varroa Mite Treatment in the European Honey Bee Apis Mellifera)
  2. Srijana Shrestha, Horticulture – $500 (Presentation Title: Professional Development Training for Soil-Biodegradable Plastic Mulch (BDM))
  3. Noah Willsea, Horticulture – $250 (Presentation Title: Retractable netting reduces sunburn risk while maintaining red color in apples)
  4. Jasmine Richman, Animal Sciences – $250 (Presentation Title: Investigating the activin receptor signaling pathway as a key regulator ofmuscle grown following whole genome duplication events)

 

Uddhav Bhattarai is a finalist for best oral presentation at ASABE 2021

Stewart Bohnet

Photo of Uddhav BhattaraiJuly, 2021 | Pullman, WA

Uddhav Bhattarai placed in the ITSC community competition for the presentation titled “Simplifying Apple Flower/Fruit Counting: A Weakly Supervised Approach”.

Congratulations to all of the finalists of the ASABE Student Oral/Poster Presentation Competition, held during the 2021 Annual International Meeting.

Each finalist received a $250 prize check. For more information on the competition, please visit ASABE’s website: https://asabe.org/Poster.

 

 

 

Research Week Celebrates Outstanding Faculty and Staff – Manoj Karkee

Stewart Bohnet

October 18, 2021  |  WSU Insider

Photo of Manoj KarkeeResearch Week Competition Winners

Multi-disciplinary Grant Competition Award – First place award will receive $50,000 plus a doctoral-level research assistantship provided by the Graduate School. Second place award will receive $20,000.

  • First place – Manoj Karkee, associate professor of Biological Systems Engineering

… continue reading the article…

Read the complete article: Research Week Celebrates 2021, WSU Insider.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WSU to lead national AI research institute for agriculture

Stewart Bohnet

July 29, 2021 | WSU Insider

Photo of workers with droneWSU to lead national AI research institute for agriculture

With a new $20 million federal grant, Washington State University will lead a multi-institutional research institute to develop artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to tackle some of agriculture’s biggest challenges related to labor, water, weather and climate change.

The new institute is one of 11 launched by the National Science Foundation and among two funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture in 2021. It’s called the AgAID Institute, which is short for USDA-NIFA Institute for Agricultural AI for Transforming Workforce and Decision Support.

WSU Insider

Members of Biological Systems Engineering who are involved in this work include:
Claudio Stockle
Qin Zhang
Lav Khot
Manoj Karkee
R. Troy Peters
Kirti Rajagopalan
Sindhuja Sankaran

Robotic crop pollination awarded $1 million grant

Stewart Bohnet

Photo of Manoj Karkee with robotJune 19, 2020  |  WSU Insider

Developing robotic technology for crop pollination is the goal of a new project for Washington State University scientists.
Funded by a nearly $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Washington State Department of Agriculture, the team is led by Manoj Karkee, an associate professor in WSU’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering and Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems (CPAAS).

The three-year grant…

Read the article : Robotic crop pollination awarded $1 million grant, 2020, WSU Insider.

 

 

 

 

 

Precision pruning can help machines safely, efficiently harvest apples

Stewart Bohnet

July 9, 2019  |  WSU Insider

With more apples to pick than any other state—more than 2.5 million tons every year—Washington apple producers have a growing desire to put labor-saving machines to work at harvest.

Sharing new discoveries on how precise pruning could support a labor-saving mechanical harvesting technique, scientists at Washington State University have won an award for their research from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE).

Read the article : Precision pruning can help machines, 2019, WSU Insider.

 

 

 

 

 

Western Innovator: From Nepal to Robotic Pioneer

Stewart Bohnet

May 12, 2019  |  Salem, OR

Some 30 years ago, he was a lad tending rice, sugarcane, goats and other crops on his family’s subsistence farm in the mid-hill region of Bhojpur, Nepal.

Last December, Manoj Karkee (pronounced Maw-nose Car-key) was among 11 U.S. and Canadian professors named 2019 pioneers in artificial intelligence and the internet by Connected World, a business and technology publication.

Karkee, 41, is an associate professor in the Biological Systems Engineering Department at Washington State University. He leads a staff of 12 in the Agricultural Automation and Robotics Laboratory at the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser.

Read the Paper : Western Innovator: From Nepal to robotic pioneer, 2019, Capital Press.

 

 

 

 

 

2019 ASABE Superior Paper Award – Congratulations!

Stewart Bohnet

May 9, 2019  |  Pullman, WA

The team of Qin Zhang, Xin Zhang, Long He, Yaqoob Majeed, Matthew D. Whiting and Manoj Karkee have been selected to receive a 2019 ASABE Superior Paper Award.
This group will be honored at the General Session Recognition Program during the ASABE Annual International Meeting on July 8th, 2019 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.

  • Qin Zhang – Professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering and Director, Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems, Washington State University, Prosser, WA.
  • Xin Zhang – Graduate Student in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering and Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems, Washington State University, Prosser, WA.
  • Long He – Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Fruit Research and Extension Center, Pennsylvania State University, Biglerville, PA.
  • Yaqoob Majeed – Graduate Student in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering and Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems, Washington State University, Prosser, WA.
  • Matthew D. Whiting – Professor in the Department of Horticulture, Washington State University, Prosser, WA.
  • Manoj Karkee – Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering and Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems, Washington State University, Prosser, WA.

Read the Paper : A Precision Pruning Strategy for Improving Efficiency of Vibratory Mechanical Harvesting of Apples, 2018, Transactions of the ASABE, Vol. 61(5): 1565-1576.