Hasta La Ideas

Lanternflies, though pretty, have become an increasingly present and destructive force for crops in the eastern US and it’s anticipated that they will spread across the country. In response to the growing hazard and financial impact, a team of students in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University created TartanPest, an autonomous robot that moves through potentially infested areas on a microtractor base, uses computer vision to identify the insect’s egg masses and uses its robotic arm to remove the masses from the trees and objects they are attached to, preventing them from hatching. Read more about the invention at Carnegie Mellon University’s website.

TartanPest image courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University