报告人：Stavros Vougioukas  教授，美国加州大学戴维斯分校

报告时间：2024年4月21日(周日)上午9:00-10:30

报告地点：信电学院406报告厅

联系人：张昭 邮箱：zhaozhangcau@cau.edu.cn

Speaker Introduction

Dr. Vougioukas received his Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Aristotle University in Greece. Under a Fulbright fellowship, he got a M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the State University of NY at Buffalo, and a Ph.D. in Robotics and Automation from the Electrical, Computers and Systems Engineering department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. He is a Professor and Vice-Chair in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of California at Davis, where he teaches and conducts research in the areas of robotics, automation, and mechanization for specialty crops. His projects address problems in robotic fruit harvesting, farm worker and robot collaboration and precision yield mapping. His research program is supported by federal grants, commodity boards and industry. He has served as Associate Editor for the Biosystems Engineering Journal since 2015.

Abstract

Harvesting is the most labor-intensive operation in fresh fruit production. Currently, all fresh fruits are harvested manually, and increasing labor shortages and costs present major challenges to fruit growers worldwide. Dr. Vougioukas will present his lab’s research on the two main approaches to address this challenge: fruit-harvesting robots and harvest aids. In the first part of the seminar, he will analyze the two main factors that shape harvesting cost, i.e., harvesting speed and efficiency. These factors present the two major challenges for building real-world, cost-effective harvesting robots. Dr. Vougioukas will discuss the use of many coordinated robot arms to increase harvest speed and the use of multiple cameras to increase fruit visibility and harvest efficiency. He will also present recent results in this area and future research directions. The second part of the seminar will focus on robotic harvest-aids. Dr. Vougioukas will discuss the use of these robots to increase farm workers’ harvest efficiencies, and ongoing and future research to embed worker safety and ergonomics into the operation of harvest-aid robots.