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Field roboticsResearchSample story

TerraSentia research highlights crop counting beneath the canopy

Historical example: Illinois reported recognition for a compact robot designed to automate plant measurements within crop rows.

By Adaptive AgroTech editorial deskSource date 2 Jul 2018Published on World 12 Oct 2026

Original schematic of a generic field robot collecting data between crop rows. — Illustrative schematic of under-canopy sensing; not a photograph or engineering drawing of TerraSentia. Credit: Original concept diagram prepared for Adaptive AgroTech World. Original schematic created for this package; permitted for use with Adaptive AgroTech World.

On 2 July 2018, the University of Illinois reported that work on TerraSentia received the best systems paper award at Robotics: Science and Systems. The announcement described a compact autonomous platform using cameras and learning algorithms to collect plant information beneath the crop canopy.

Illinois reported a width of 13 inches and a weight of 24 pounds for the platform described at that time. Its account also explained a corn-counting method trained through transfer learning with 300 images, with camera motion used to accommodate uneven plant spacing.

The work addressed the labour required to measure breeding trials. These specifications and research claims belong to the 2018 announcement; this historical sample does not establish the capabilities or availability of a current commercial model.

This report introduces information from the credited sources. Technical and performance claims belong to the cited organization unless explicitly described as independently assessed. Our coverage is not a product endorsement.

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