Sustainable Precision Animal Agriculture
The Collaborative Robotics Lab is engaged in a variety of projects investigating the sustainability, safety, efficiency,
and productivity of animal agriculture and its impacts on global health and well-being. Through support from the
National Science Foundation, US Department of Agriculture, NSF RoSe-HuB Center, and supporting companies and through collaborations
with ECE, ME, Animal Science, Penn State University, and Virginia Tech, we are exploring the farm ecosystem and its far-reaching impacts
on global climate, the soil microbiome, water and land use, and the economy of the family farm.
New Class on Cyber-Animal Systems!! "Technology-Enhanced Animal Welfare"
CPS - Closed Loop Precision Animal Agriculture
A primary goal of USDA/NIFA CPS grant, Closed-Loop Precision Animal Agriculture for Global Sustainability, is
the development of a CPS reference architecture to return to the individualized care offered by the traditional
family farm. We are developing a 3-layer network, from edge to cloud, that gathers data from inside the animals themselves and
centralizes it in the cloud for intelligent access. Along the way, the data is processed through the series of
network layers and analytics to extract individual-, herd-, and farm-level data for farmers to act on.
This enhances farm productivity, animal health and safety, as well as animal welfare and anxiety, which is known to positively feedback
into productivity and health.
RumenNet is dependent on RumenComm for the bottom layer of the network. This is a dedicated Wireless Body Sensor Network
research effort to better understand the electromagnetic characteristics of the cow and to use that information
to better design a safe, low-power method of edge data extraction from in vivo sensors.
The current collaboration with Penn State has developed a miniature, rigid, modular robot as the initial sensor
delivery platform. However, rigid structures for in vivo exploration have proven troublesome, in many biological
applications. We are pursuing soft tensegrity structures for in vivo mobility and novel buoyancy-based locomotion
paradigms.
This Penn State/Purdue collaboration mated the peristaltic propulsion module with a 2-DoF articulating joint
module to produce a steerable modular inch-worm robot.
The same articulating joint module acts as a novel buoyancy control joint for this neutrally buoyant robot
for sensors positioning. Net buoyancy control allows the robot to move up and down while "buoyancy gaits" allow the
robot to control its orientation and translation with static poses and buoyancy changes. The buoyant "flippers"
on the ends are shaped to produce hydrodynamic reaction forces during vertical movement.
Some of this work is co-sponsored by the NSF
Center for Robots and Sensors for the Human Well-Being (RoSe-HUB). This site also reflects work as a participant in the National Science
Foundation grant CNS-1450342.
Distributed Robotics Source List
Copyright: © 2019-2021, 2023 by Richard M. Voyles
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, (765) 494-4600
Under USDA grant 2018-67007-28439, Purdue is leading a CPS project on Closed-Loop Precision Animal Agriculture for Global Sustainability.
NRI - RUMENS: Rumen Understanding through Millipede-Engineered Navigation and Sensing
Under USDA grant 2019-67021-28990, Purdue is particiating on an NRI project on Rumen Understanding through Millipede-Engineered Navigation and Sensing (RUMENS).
RumenNet - 3-Layer CPS Reference Architecture for the Connected Cow
RumenComm - Biosafe Communications via Body Area Networks for Animals
RumenScope - Database of Electro-Magneto-Spatio-Dynamics of the Connected Cow
RumenStealth - Authentication-Free Security via Semi-Supervised Rogue Software Detection
RumenSense - Bio-Compatible Sensors for Animal Health, Welfare and Productivity
RUMENSoft - Soft Robotics for in vivo Gathering of Individualized Animal Data
Publications on Precision Animal Ag
Robotics Sources