Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
Proposal summary:
Treatment of grape vines for fungus diseases is essential for crop production of grapes and for the health of the grapevine plant itself. Grape production greatly decreases with the existence of damaging funguses. Many of the funguses will eventually kill the plant.
Powdery Mildew and Downy Mildew and other fungal diseases can become resistance to fungicides even if different chemicals are rotated every year or during the growing season. Cost of chemicals are ever increasing and cutting into the bottom line of the grape grower but an electrical powered solution is more cost effective.
The proposed UV-C tunnel can also be used in other trellised berry fields and trellised dwarf apple orchards to control fire blight. This project will concentrate on grapes.
Safety of vineyard workers and people’s health is the highest concern when fungicides are handled and sprayed. Less chemical use means less damage to the environment. For example, a traditional sprayer used on 12 acres will add 11.1 tons CO2 of greenhouse gas into the environment per year spraying fungicides.
Project objectives from proposal:
Solution
The solution is to build an autonomous UV light treatment robotic system from scratch which will run at night. This machine will reduce the need for and amount of spray fungicides into the environment by 80%. It will also lessen fungicide resistance in the vineyard. This amount is based on a study by Cornel University, “Grape Disease Control, June 2023” by Katie Gold, Assistant Professor of Grape Pathology, Cornell University, Geneva, NY. The robot is designed to operate over the vineyard rows, so each side and top of the vines are treated at the same time.
A conceptual drawing is attached to this application. The robot uses high floatation tracks (Shown) or a Zero Turn Radius concept with floatation tires that allows the robot to operate on wet ground, without compacting soil around the vines, during nocturnal operation.
A reflective hood will be lined with UV-C light strips. The autonomous robot will use a combination of GPS, RTK, 5G Cell similar to the concept used on the existing Mars Rover GPS locator system developed by SDSU students.
Batteries will be located on each side of the robot to supply power to drive the tracks (Shown) or floatation tires. UV-C light strips, control systems, and general work lights (Not shown on concept drawing) for safety are powered by genset incorporated into the chassis, because of electrical power demand to operate the UV-C lights. The robot is a hybrid system, using AC Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) as a backup to the batteries.
The Senior Engineering Design Team will assist in the fabrication, vineyard field tests, evaluation of fungus control, and programming/debugging of the actual autonomous robotic system.
Jerome Natzel will head up the project engineering with regards to the conceptualization, design, layout, fabrication, and scheduling of the UV light treatment robot and working with Wil Natzel, Coordinator, Jason Sternhagen, M.S., Electrical Engineering Instructor, EE Research Associate III / SDSU Advisor for Robotics Club and Senior Engineering Design Team and Madalyn Shires, Ph.D., SDSU Plant Pathology Specialist; Director of Plant Diagnostic Clinic; will assist in monitoring and testing of vineyards.
During the design and fabrication phases of the robot, Jason Sternhagen will mentor the Senior Engineering Design Team and coordinate formal review presentations to a number of SDSU engineering faculty to critique.
Once the robot is functional, Craig, Jim and Madalyn will work with the Senior Engineering Design Team to set up a baseline UV test rows in each South Dakota vineyard. UV treated rows will be compared with fungicide sprayed vineyard rows in each of the same vineyards, during the growing season. Using the robot for fungus treatment on Natzel’s 12 acre vineyard, will add only 2.1 tons of CO2 to the greenhouse gases per year. Calculation is also based on the June 2023 Cornell Study.
Objectives
Fabricate and test functionality of an Autonomous UV Light Treatment Robotic System using a variety of components in conjunction with SDSU Robotics Club (2020-2022)robot and the Senior Design Engineering Project Team (2024-2025) robot.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the UV light treatment by comparing fungus control in plants with sprayed fungicide vs. UV light treated plants in test plots in the vineyards in South Dakota and Minnesota.
Share findings through websites, publications, and field days.