Sergio ValencÍa Cordova, Rodrigo López and Sergio Saavedra from the Universidad Privada Boliviana presented their automated agricultural robot as part of the student competition at the Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC) conference taking place on campus this week.
The robot is a prototype that could be used to plot map points on a field, and drill into soft soil to examine what nutrients need to be added for efficient agriculture. The students say the government could buy the robots for villages around the country and local farmers could borrow the robots to tell them exactly how much nitrogen or potassium should be added to support a particular crop.
Another group of students from Instituto Technologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Campus Cuidad de Mexico - David Monnara, Marco Ruiz and Rafael Mendoza - put together a prototype of an automated wheelchair that navigates via the user’s eye movements. The system also contains autonomous navigation that allows the chair to avoid obstacles and move without human instruction. It can also be moved using a simple hand controller. In addition the chair contains a system that can access a menu to use pre-recorded audio files.
The ISTEC conference has drawn about 200 participants from throughout Latin America and the U.S. The annual conference brings educators and business people together to discuss projects of mutual interest.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at October 30, 2009 08:45 AM