Talk:

Our Future Agri-Food Systems: The Role of Robotics and AI

American farmers currently face numerous challenges, one of the largest being increasing uncertainty about the future availability of farm workers. Despite decades of research, there has been little commercial adoption of robots that can do physically strenuous tasks like prune, thin, and harvest fresh fruits and vegetables. Why? Because biological systems such as orchards and vineyards are really challenging environments for robots. Much of the prior work has focused primarily on visual perception, often ignoring the complex physical interactions that occur when people manipulate plants. In this talk, I'll discuss ongoing work at OSU to create robots that use novel mechanical devices, sensors, and Deep Learning to manipulate plants.

Bio:

Dr. Davidson is an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University. He received his B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY in 2004. After serving in the Army for five years, Dr. Davidson worked as a project manager for the CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company at Hanford, WA from 2009 to 2012. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Washington State University and was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2016 to 2018.

Dr. Davidson's group performs fundamental and applied research at the intersection of mechanics, machine learning, and controls. Current areas of emphasis include robotic manipulation and soft robotics.

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