Aquaculture
The Underwater ROV team had a fieldtrip to Nelson in March. It was very successful with great weather over the week in Nelson and lots of data collected. The ROV scanned mussel rope lines at the mussel farms in Tasman Bay.
Autonomous scanning was refined to the point where we can accept early adopters. This is a massive milestone for spinning out our research into the real world.
Field trips
In March the Occlusion project team had a trip to Lincoln University to learn about grapevine biology. As most of the team are computer scientists, a lesson was useful in learning about the different parts of the plant and what happens in different seasons.
We had a talk by Amber Parker from Lincoln University through very detailed slides. These were very informative, and the team were able to ask questions. We then went out into the vineyard which is currently covered with netting to protect the ripe fruit. Amber pointed out the features on the plants.
It was a very informative trip and we had time for a team photo before heading back to the UC campus.
Aquaculture
In November 2023 our underwater robot team funded by SfTI travelled to Rotorua for a workshop which ran over three days at Novotel Lakeside and Te Puia. We listened to amazing speakers including Sir Ashley Bloomfield and Professor Rangi Mātāmua.
One morning our researchers Tim Rensen and Rory Clifford decided to film our underwater robot in Lake Rotorua. Rory was entering his video in a competition. Rory interviewed Tim and showed the robot being set up and operating in the lake. Rory attended the Video Media Training workshop, shot his video and ended up winning the prize for the best SfTI research video.
The trip was a very successful one and we are grateful to SfTI for funding our underwater ROV project.
Blenheim
On 14 February 2024 we held an event for the MBIE funded project, “Predicting the unseen: a new method for accurate yield estimation in viticulture/horticulture”, otherwise known as the Occlusion Project. The event was held at the NZ Wine Centre in Blenheim with talks on the project held in the theatre there and then a field trip to Constellation Vineyard to see our robot scanning the grapevines.
We had good industry engagement with lots of good discussion around what we are doing. The field trip was a great introduction to our robot ‘Matilda’ and camera bar. We hope to have this event yearly and invite more people next year as we build up a network of industry supporters.
Arboriculture
The University of Canterbury research team from the $10mil MBIE funded Drones with tools project, flew to Auckland on 4 September to have an in-person meeting with the University of Auckland team. These meetings are crucial for integration of all the different parts of the drone project.
The day started with talks given by key researchers from the drone project plus some presentations by project students from the University of Auckland. There was then discussion over the drone design which is a planetary hex drone design by Associate Professor Karl Stol’s team.
The day concluded with two drone presentations including one peg in hole demo.
We are in an exciting phase of the project with the final drone design for prototype one being ready by 1 October.
Blenheim
In July 2023 we conducted our Maaratech field work in the Marlborough region.
Using our robot Genie, we scanned both sides of 110 plants in the Cloudy Bay vineyard.
The HDR capture coupled with the close alignment between each sides meant we got the best photos yet.
We also scan 1.5ha (approx. 3,000 vines) of vines at our secondary site:
In this vineyard we made use of the row following to achieve consistent distance from the vines.
We also tested our remote control of the vehicle. Here is a picture of Matt down the road having a coffee and monitoring the robot. The robot was autonomously scanning and no one was on site to monitor it.
Richie has now mounted all the camera’s on the adjustable camera bar onto Genie (see picture below). They still need some adjustment. Hopefully we will get to test this new set up in Lincoln in July.
CSSE Drone Lab
In June InFact completed a cutting tool to be attached to our drone. We already had a tool which had been designed by final project students but was a more lightweight tool. This tool can easily cut larger branches. It was interesting watching the tool being attached to our Matrice drone and the first flights using the tool look promising.
Drones
On 22 May 2023 the Drone Project held an industry day at Ilam Homestead. The day started with presentations from our key researchers with updates on how the project is progressing. There was a display of drones from both the University of Auckland and the University of Canterbury. We had a good turnout of industry representatives both on Zoom and in person.
In the afternoon Sam Schofield (Postdoc/PhD) did a demonstration of the Matrice drone in Ilam Gardens with the pruning tool attached. Pruning was not possible during the demo due to the trees being historic. There was also a tour of the Mechanical Engineering wind tunnel.
Several industry connections were developed during this event with ongoing benefits to the project and this will be held yearly to increase industry engagement.
Aquaculture
Tim and Timothy talk about the UC Vision ROV which has recently been taken to the Marlborough Sounds for fieldwork. The ROV has successfully scanned mussel lines in mussel farms as well as taking mussel samples from the ropes. Tim and Timothy explain the benefits of using an ROV in aquaculture.
Aquaculture
The UC Computer Vision Lab’s project, headed by Professor Richard Green, is working on autonomously recording stereo vision of mussel lines. This footage is then post-processed, using advanced computer vision algorithms, to determine the mussel sizes and quantities, allowing for better crop forecasting. Tim Rensen, Ori Ganoni, and Timothy Manning spent a week in Marlborough sounds and Tasman Bay testing and rapidly prototyping new control and automation software. Some of the highlights of the trip were successfully scanning sections of the mussel farm autonomously and removing mussels from the line using a prototype gripper.