Five disciplines, one goal: overall victory in the international competition
At the International Field Robot Event, students compete against each other with their self-developed field robots. This year, the event took place in Italy, in Lombardy near Milan. The participants came from a total of ten different countries and competed against each other in five different disciplines over four days. Acorn came out on top against 14 other teams and took home the world championship title. "Despite 30 degree heat, a journey of over 1,000 kilometers and overnight stays in a tent on a stubble field, the team impressed with technical excellence, team spirit and perseverance," says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Meltebrink, Professor of Autonomous, Collaborative Agricultural and Sensor Systems at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, who supports the team together with Prof. Dr.-Ing.
Intensive preparation and creative solutions
The students have been preparing for the competition since March. Emil Galwas, Thorben Boße, Christopher Sieh, Isaak Ihorst, Mahmoud Faris, Deniz Yumul, Simon Balzer, Marco Tassemeier, Alexander Mock, Philipp Schlinge, Jannik Jose, Leon Rabius, Luca Otto, Eduard Gode, Philipp Gehricke and Andreas Klaas designed, built, programmed and repeatedly tested their own robot.
"Our team was made up of dedicated students from Osnabrück University and Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. The collaboration was very enriching, both professionally and personally. Over the course of the event, I was not only able to get to know my own team members even better, but also gain valuable impressions through the exchange with the other teams. It was particularly exciting to see different approaches to solutions and to exchange ideas intensively in individual areas of robotics and agricultural technology," says Thorben Boße.
Among other things, the students developed a system in which the robot takes over the artificial pollination of plants with a robotic arm - highly relevant for agriculture and research in view of the global decline in natural pollinators. The team was supported by the Claas Foundation, Amazonen-Werke and iotec GmbH.
Looking to the future: plans to found an association
The university and college are currently planning to found an association around the Field Robot team in order to provide even better support for the students in the future. "I am particularly pleased that we are working together on a student association that is organized by the students themselves. This is a big step forward," says Eduard Gode.
Further information
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Meltebrink
Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences
Phone: +49(0)541 969 - 2945
c.meltebrink@hs-osnabrueck.de
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mario Porrmann
Osnabrück University
Phone: +49(0)541 969 - 2434
mario.porrmann@uni-osnabrueck.de
