Agricultural Automation Engineering

DJI, the world’s leading commercial drone manufacturer, and Washington State University Tuesday announced their intention to partner on research and use of unmanned aerial systems in precision agriculture.

WSU’s Center for Precision & Automated Agricultural Systems (CPAAS), based in Prosser, Wash., will lead the effort. CPAAS provides the vast agricultural community in the Pacific Northwest with the latest technology for increased farming efficiency and environmentally friendly production.

Good Fruit Grower | Nov 25, 2015 WSU researcher is using thermal infrared cameras and other sensor technologies to study fruit traits. Researchers have made strides in the study of fruit genomics in recent years, but less ground has been gained in the field of phenomics, the measurement of plant and fruit traits. Genotyping and […]

Columbia Basin Herald | By LAURA GUIDO, Staff Writer PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University researchers are seeking new ways to increase efficiency of water use in agriculture. Associate Professor Sindhuja Sankaran is working on using specialized sensors to measure heat stress in grape vines as a way to test the effectiveness of sub-surface irrigation. […]

January 2016, CAHNRS blog Farming of the future will be data-driven, and Washington State University is helping shape that future. As the world population grows and demands on our natural resources increase, producing more food more efficiently is a top global priority. Converging that need with advancements in robotics, sensors, satellites and data analysis puts agriculture […]

JANUARY 25, 2016, by ALYSSA PATRICK An assistant professor and extension specialist in WSU’s Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems (CPAAS), Lav works with farmers and researchers across disciplines to solve agricultural problems. He also partners with companies like Yamaha and Digital Harvest to test solutions happening in the lab with existing technologies, or […]

August 12, 2015 | by Jeffrey Dennison, WSU Tri-Cities PROSSER, Wash. — Washington State University and a private company are testing an unmanned helicopter to blow rainwater off cherries on trees. The 11-foot-long, 141-pound Yamaha RMAX aircraft has been used in to spray rice crops in Japan since 1997. Some 2,500 operate there now. WSU […]

August 11, 2015 | by Jeffrey Dennison, WSU Tri-Cities PROSSER, Wash. – Washington State University is partnering with Digital Harvest Corp. to test an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that could provide a safer, less expensive means to blow rainwater off cherry orchards to avoid fruit losses. Rain can cause splits in the skin of cherries […]

July 16, 2015  WSU News | By Maegan Murray, WSU Tri-Cities RICHLAND, Wash. – Between 15-18 billion apples are harvested every year in Washington state for fresh market consumption, but often farmers can’t find enough people to pick the fruit. Many agencies have tried to create a device that will help with the picking process […]

by Steven Garrity on June 15, 2015 In July of 2013, Dr. Lav Khot and his team were in the field looking at how cherries were picked, weighed, and transported, when suddenly a helicopter began circling around a nearby orchard block.  When Dr. Khot asked the grower about it he said, “There was a rain last […]

Feb 2015 | The rise of the apple picking robot, by David Kroman Three out of five apples in the United States come from Washington. That’s 10-12 billion apples if you’re doing the math – enough to wrap around the earth 29 times. The $2.25 billion earned in 2012 was nearly double the revenue of […]