Researchers and participants sketch robotics interventions in agricultural technologies

June 23, 2010

Oakhurst Community Garden, Decatur, GA

Summer 2010 was a period of reflection for the growBot team, as we hunkered down to refine our website and develop activities for our upcoming participation in the SJ01 Biennial in September.

We hosted a small conversational event at the Oakhurst Community Garden in Decatur, GA. Our event posed the question: What happens if we narrow the scope of discussions around agricultural robotics to a single plant? Could we develop a workshop that was shorter in length than our May Symposium, but still accomplished our goals of informed brainstorming?

CucumberBot thus focused discussion upon cucumbers, a common plant for beginning gardeners, and one growing in abundance in Georgia during June. The plant poses several problems for technologic interventions due to it’s growing peculiarities: the green fruit perplex color detection algorithms, while the spindly vines of the plant rapidly spread in unpredictable patterns based upon local rainfall.

Growing under the shade of large leaves, the cucumbers present a textbook case of ocular occlusion which confound shape recognition programs. From the perspective of the gardener, the small window of harvest-time requires vigilance else an over-ripe fruit leech nutrients from the entire plant. Cucumbers’ rapid maturation rates additionally pose processing problems for the home gardener, who might engage in vegetable swaps, pickling, and other distribution methods to deal with the summer bounty.

growBot team member in front of a learning station devoted to Sensing technologies

Participants visited our learning stations, and then wandered the gardens at Oakland, identifying cucumbers in community plots, technologic interventions such as trellises and string, and noting the difference between plant species.

Participants and researchers identify cucumber plants growing in community plots in Oakhurst Garden.

After exploration, we returned to picnic tables for rapid-fire brainstorming of bots that could aid in cucumber robotics. Ideas developed included sensor-enabled scarecrows and articulating camera bots that identified ripe fruits ready for human plucking.

Local organic snack buffet included pimento cheese, white bean hummus, homemade bread, kale chips, and cucumbers from Serenbe Farms. Foraged blackberry tea and cucumber mint water were refreshments on the menu.

Sketch by a growBot team member during discussion