2021 Winners
Advanced Division
Best Overall: Overwhelming Handler, Zhejiang University
Best Electronic Presentation: Robot Never Give Up, Zhejiang University
Best Written Report: ABE, University of Florida
Standard Division
Best Overall: Plant Patrol, Zhejiang University
Best Electronic Presentation: Qizhen Lakers, Zhejiang University
Best Written Report: Henau-2, Henan Agricultural University
The ASABE Robotics Student Design Competition is a student design event that was conceived in 2006. The competition allows undergraduate and graduate students to develop skills in robotic systems, electronics, and sensing technologies by simulating a fully autonomous robotics solution to a common agricultural process.
The competition requires teams to build a robot, or group of cooperative robots, which accomplish a simulated pre-, peri-, or post-harvest agricultural operation. The robots must be fully autonomous and able to complete the task without human intervention. The robots are small, less than 12”x12”x12”, and the challenge is typically executed on a custom-fabricated table. In past years, robots have been required to simulate counting and sorting, pick-up, pruning, transport, and precision-maneuvering operations.
The robotics competition is, by its nature, a very technical and precise competition. As such, the scoring for the competition is completely objective, and focuses on speed and precision with which the challenge is completed. Robots are not judged on esthetics, craftsmanship, or elegance, which allows for teams to create the most effective solution to the given challenge.
In addition to the challenge itself, each team must submit a poster and a 3-min video that describes the development and function of their robot(s). The students will display their posters at the ASABE annual meeting, prior to the competition, to show off their work to industry and academic professionals attending the conference.
Because the competition is held during the ASABE Annual International Meeting, the competition changes each year to represent an agricultural product of the region where the meeting is being held. This results in vastly different challenges from year to year.
Participation
The competition is open to all current student members of ASABE, both undergraduate and graduate. There is no maximum number of team members per team and each university may field multiple teams so long as their robots do not share components. Every team must have a faculty or staff advisor who will be their primary contact with ASABE and all competing students must be registered for the annual international meeting and have a meeting badge. There are no classes or leagues and every team will work on the same challenge. There are no budget limits at this time. Teams are encouraged to obtain funding for the construction of their robots and registration and travel to the competition through their college, student organizations, and sponsor companies.
The 2021 Competition
The theme of the 2021 ASABE Student Robotics Competition is the application of field robotics in strawberry nursery and production in a simulated environment. Teams are invited to design and implement a robot that can autonomously identify, count, and remove excessive and unhealthy leaves and flowers of simulated and real strawberry plants.
A 16 ft by 4 ft board will be used to simulate a strawberry field (hereafter field refers to the competition board). Teams are challenged to develop a robot for strawberry plant nursery and thinning, which includes detection, actuation, and mapping tasks.
Standard and Advanced divisions are proposed in the 2021 competition. Both divisions have detection and actuation tasks, and division differences will be presented in task quantity and difficulty. The details of the tasks required from each division can be found in the linked documents below.
Registration Deadline: April 15, 2022
2022 Competition Rules
Competition Documents
Q&A
2022 Registration Form
Additional Information
Do you have questions about the competition? Are you interested in helping organize, judge, or sponsor the ASABE Robotics Student Design Competition? Please contact the awards administrator.
Sponsorship and Support
igus Young Engineers Support Program
We are proud to announce that student teams will be able to acquire free parts for the fabrication of their robots through the igus Young Engineers Support (YES) program this year. The YES program is designed to foster the mechanical design ideas of those with a passion for engineering - whether you are a high school or college student, university professor, or team mentor. The program's goal is to support the design ideas of students and educate them on the merits and benefits of plastic components. Product donations are available to students and robotics competitions across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Click Here to find out more about the YES program.
Student can fill out the registration form to use the Y.E.S. program by following this link.