URBANA, Ill. — From self-driving tractors to weeding robots and AI-powered data collection, automated machinery is revolutionizing agricultural production. While these technological advancements can greatly improve productivity, they also raise new questions about safety measures and regulations.

URBANA, Ill. – Caleb Bruhn, doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) at the University of Illinois, has been named as a 2023 Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) fellow.

In observance of Earth Day (April 22), we share work being done by Maria Jones, associate director of the ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss, and Samantha Lindgren, assistant professor in the Department of Education and affiliated faculty member in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and the Technology Entrepreneurship Center in the Grainger College of Engineering.

By Sam Lindgren, Ghaida Alrawashdeh, and Maria Jones

The Center for Digital Agriculture will lead an on-site Research Experience for Undergraduates program titled “Drivers for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Practices (MAPs).”

URBANA, Ill. – As Corn Belt states seek ways to curb nitrogen flow from farms into the Gulf of Mexico, new University of Illinois research adds evidence for winter cover crops as an important part of the solution. A simulation study published in Science of the Total Environment finds widespread planting of cereal rye in Illinois could reduce nitrate in the state’s tile drainage water by 30%.

URBANA, Ill. – As new technological innovations in agriculture continue to advance, it is critical to understand the safety implications of automated equipment. The Ag Safety Group at the University of Illinois has launched a series of initiatives to advance research and discussion of ag robotics safety and regulations.

URBANA, Ill. -- Wastewater from biorefineries that convert plants into fuel is full of organic materials that cannot be efficiently treated with conventional wastewater systems, making it costly and energy-intensive to manage.

However, those rich organic materials are an untapped source of chemical energy that can be recovered as valuable products, including biogas, a clean-burning renewable fuel.

URBANA, Ill. – A new University of Illinois project is using advanced object recognition technology to keep toxin-contaminated wheat kernels out of the food supply and to help researchers make wheat more resistant to fusarium head blight, or scab disease, the crop’s top nemesis.   

URBANA, Ill. – Aerial imagery is a valuable component of precision agriculture, providing farmers with important information about crop health and yield. Images are typically obtained with an expensive multispectral camera attached to a drone.

The Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) is providing seed funding for a research project that will use automation to reduce manual labor costs in small urban farming operations.