Precision Imaging and Tool-block for Early In-row Hoeing – BIPBIP

For both vegetable crops and field crops, weed management at early stages is a critical issue with great consequences from a financial and ecological point of view and in terms of harvest quality. Technical answers to this issue are either chemical, mechanical and even manual weeding depending on the type of crops, their physiological stage or the chosen technical route (e.g. conventional or organic farming).

The BIPBIP project aims at developing a mechanical solution to weed management in vegetable and field crops at early stages. This solution consists of an imagery and telemetry based self-guided hoeing system designed for a single crop row. The computer vision module provides crop and weed plant positions to a decisional system controlling a mechanical device which proceeds to the weed hoeing.

The hoeing system is a compact tool-block which can be embedded on any agricultural machine, either alone or in a row. The system is entirely electric and energy-efficient. No hydraulic circuit is necessary. Consequently, this system can be embedded in an autonomous robot or co-robot. Higher working output can be obtained by towing several tool-blocks to a tractor.

The tool-block has to be versatile and easily reconfigurable in order to deal with several crops. Two study cases will be addressed in priority: the carrot case as an example of vegetable crops with dense sowing patterns and the sweet corn case as an example of field crops with large between-plant distance. Extensions to other vegetable or field crops will be addressed in experimental trials within the project itself or during the ROSE Challenge events.

The BIPBIP project is carried out by a consortium whose expertise covers the project needs. Members from IMS lab are specialists in image analysis and agri-environmental imagery. Members from the LaBRI are robotics and embedded systems experts. Elatec is a small company that produces agricultural equipments and machines. CTIFL is a technical center specialized in vegetable and fruit crops. Fermes Larrère is a vegetable and field crops producer in the south west of France.

Even if the project focuses in the development of the machine prototype, the consortium intends to move further towards the industrialization and the commercialization of a new european solution for self-guided hoeing between and within rows for a wide variety of crops.