In California, with a nearly $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, University of California researchers plan to show they can conserve more water through co-robotics. The research could change the way crops are maintained worldwide, saving millions of gallons of water each year.
The three-year Robot-Assisted Precision Irrigation and Diagnostics project will start with grape vines. The RAPID system includes small, plastic emitters — that cost about 25 cents each — attached to individual irrigation lines and precisely controlled by handheld devices operated by field workers or mounted on mobile robots. The devices signal the emitters to adjust the amount of water each vine receives to keep it healthy and achieving its best yield.
The tests will determine if the robotics can work as well in different environments as they have in laboratory situations. And, this system may be less expensive than more common retrofits to existing irrigation systems.