This seminar is a hybrid event. REGISTRATION REQUIRED for Zoom: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/-0ykm8BfSx66jzv9w-ImMg
Abstract:
Agricultural machinery has become increasingly complex. While these systems increase productivity, they also make maintenance, sanitation, and repair more challenging. Farmers often depend on a small pool of specialized technicians to diagnose and repair equipment, and during peak periods such as harvest even short delays can result in costly downtime or crop losses. Limited access to expertise (particularly in rural areas) creates a bottleneck in maintaining agricultural systems.
In this talk, I present technology we developed to conduct asynchronous and remote troubleshooting for small-scale machines, I propose a framework of different forms of remote collaboration in this context, and I lay out the challenges of scaling to agricultural-scale machinery and present progress we have made to address this. Where small-scale machines could be captured with a phone held by a user, this is significantly more challenging for big machines; we have developed techniques for natural remote collaboration using embodied robotics and drone-based navigation. Eventually, the goal is to combine these techniques and facilitate contextual sanitation, maintenance, and repair workflows build on existing knowledge of the community of agricultural workers.
Bio:
Thijs Roumen is assistant professor in Information Science at Cornell Tech (NYC) and one of the Executive board members of the Cornell Initiative on Accessible Technology and AI. He is recipient of a Google Research award and several best paper and honorable mention awards at top-tier conferences CHI and UIST. In 2023 he finished his PhD in HCI and IT Systems Engineering with Prof. Patrick Baudisch at the Hasso Plattner Institute. Before that he was research assistant at the National University of Singapore with Prof Shengdong Zhao. Thijs completed a MSc in IT Product Design at the University of Southern Denmark in Sonderborg and a BSc in Industrial Design from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.
Background on the Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture:
An interdisciplinary group of Cornell University faculty began meeting in early 2017 to formulate an Initiative for Digital Agriculture, believing that Cornell is uniquely equipped to lead in this emerging arena that will benefit the public for generations. We define DA to mean the application of computational and information technologies coupled with nanotechnology, biology, systems engineering and economics to both the research and operational sides of agriculture and food production. With approximately 100 faculty from 5 Cornell colleges participating, we are collaborating with external stakeholders to shape and implement a research agenda for DA that will build a pipeline of discovery and innovations for the next 10+ years. Please contact Gabriela Cestero at gc423@cornell.edu with any questions.