Bio: Dr. Joshua Peschel

Abstract: Agricultural environments are difficult for robots because they must operate safely around animals, crops, insects, and people. This talk presents research focused on enabling robots to sense and interact within these living systems. Computer vision methods for swine assessment are introduced, including automated pig counting and posture measurement for animal health monitoring. The talk then examines how ground robots moving through crops can unintentionally transport insects and presents models describing insect attachment and detachment during field operation. Modeling approaches for drone-animal interaction are discussed to reduce disturbance during aerial monitoring. The presentation concludes with work examining how humans supervise and interact with drones equipped with manipulators performing physical tasks for agricultural environments.

Bio: Dr. Joshua Peschel is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Research and Extension in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University. Dr. Peschel conducts research in the area of cyber-agricultural systems where he and his students create new technologies, data sets, and computational models for sensing and sensemaking. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (including the NSF CAREER Award), U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense and Energy, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a number of commodity groups and private industry partners.