U of A's ASTM Robotics Team Takes Fourth at National Engineering Competition

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The agricultural robotics team, all members of the Agricultural Systems Technology Club, competed with TuskBot at the ASABE AIM contest.

The U of A's agricultural robotics team recently placed fourth in the annual American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers AIM agricultural robotics competition.

The students, who are all members of the Agricultural Systems Technology Club, competed with TuskBot, which features autonomous navigation capabilities with line detection and follow.

The group, and robot, competed in both the standard and advanced divisions, finishing fourth in the advanced category. U of A's team was one of only two to score in all three rounds of the competition, and placed behind North Carolina State University, Zhejiang University and Brigham Young University.

Team members include Gabriel Cox, Amirreza Davar, Justin Dykstra, Yihoung Feng, Josef Frankhouse, Thalia Hawkins, Siavash Mahmoudi, Chaitanya Palleria, Pouya Sohrabipour, Akwasi Tagoe and Tyler Young.

The ASTM program is part of the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

The RIOT robotics team, from U of A's Department of Mechanical Engineering, assisted in the development of TuskBot.

Advisors for the team are assistant professor Cengiz Koparan in the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology, and assistant professor Dongyi Wang and post-doctoral fellow Ramesh Bist, both from the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.

The club is housed at the Abernathy AgriScience and Technology Education Center. This is the second year for the club. Last year, in its first competition at the national ASABE event, Arkansas finished fourth in the beginner division.

ASTM students focus on courses such as electricity in agriculture, computer applications and mechanized systems management.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.