ROBOTIC DELIVERY (SKUNK) FOR PEST MANAGEMENT IN FOOD PROCESSING FACILITIES

US grain farmers grow hundreds of millions of bushels of new corn, soybeans, wheat, sorghum, rice, and other grains which are harvested over brief periods and then stored over the following year or two. Integrated pest management methods are used to maintain and protect grain and products in storage and processing facilities. One pest management method used in facilities is aerosol insecticides. Aerosol insecticides can be deployed through built in spray systems or by a certified applicator using a pressurized cylinder or mechanical fogger. Some structures such as flour mills and other processing facilities are complex in their physical structure creating challenges for manual areorsol applications. The first objective would develop robotic systems which could be used to apply the aerosols in a facility, explore methods of monitoring aerosol application coverage using imaging or LIDAR as a sensing method, and facility mapping using LIDAR or similar technology to create a robot that can define a floor plan and create a facility specific spray plan to maximize efficacy. Secondly, stored-grain insects are difficult to detect and monitor in large facilities. The robotic platform designed with so monitoring techniques such as imaging can be adapted to the platform. Artificial Intelligence and imaging methods are concurrently being developed through another NACA with Kansas State University for insect indentification.