The University of Illinois reported an early-adopter programme for TerraSentia in March 2018, with twenty robots being field tested by seed companies, universities and overseas partners. Girish Chowdhary led the robotics effort, while plant scientists including Carl Bernacchi and Stephen Long helped identify valuable crop measurements.
The compact platform travelled between rows with cameras and other sensors, sending observations to an operator’s device. Researchers were developing methods to measure traits such as plant height and biomass and to identify disease. EarthSense, co-founded by Chowdhary and Chinmay Soman, provided a route towards commercialisation. The announcement is an historical milestone in accessible field phenotyping; its early specifications, prices and release expectations should not be treated as present-day product information.
