Members: Yunzhong (Shawn) Xiao, Tongge Yu, Zhengxiang Zhang, Ziyu Wei, Jingyi Lai, Shu Ban
Grass Hoper
A mobile robot solution for manure pollution caused by animal husbandry.
In my junior year, I led a team of undergraduates to develop a grassland manure-collecting robot. In inner Mongolia of China, thousands of tons of manure are produced by animal husbandry each year, polluting the groundwater and hardening the earth. However, with proper collection and processing, manure could have great economic value as backup energy or fertilizer. We focused on the manure processing issue by contacting pastoralists and creating a user persona to validate user needs. I implemented object detection using an RGBD camera Kinect and integrated a control system into a Jetson Nano board with another undergraduate. To keep the mechanical design team, electrical engineering team, and user investigation team on the same page, I organized weekly meetings and make sure every voice is heard. After countless prototype iterations, our final product won second place in the school, convincing judges from both academia and the industry. I am excited to see how our mobile robot can be used to help achieve a greener future.