190717 Pitla 452

Santosh Pitla, associate professor of advanced machinery systems in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, is currently developing an autonomous tractor using ground robotics. Pitla and his team are testing their driverless tractor at the Agricultural Research and Development Center (ARDC, MEAD). The autonomous tractors are named Flexible Structured Robotic Vehicle (FlexRo), the tractor is currently used for plant phenotyping, which is measuring the physical characteristics of the plant. According to Pitla, cameras are added to the machine to collect images that characterize plant conditions. Photo for the 2019 publication of the Strategic Discussions for Nebraska magazine. July 17, 2019, Photo by Gregory Nathan / University Communication.