Publications

• Rohde, W., & Forni, F. (2023) Lettuce modelling for growth control in precision agriculture. European Journal of Control, 2023, 100843, ISSN 0947-3580.

Presentations

• “Precision Agriculture for Iceberg Lettuce” (poster) – University of Cambridge Department of Engineering Division F Conference [March 2022] – Cambridge, UK.
• “Regulation of plant growth in a field as a multi-agent control problem” (oral) – AgriFoRwArdS CDT Annual Conference [June 2022] – Lincoln, UK.
• “Stand-Alone, Easy-to-Scale and Low-Overhead Robotic Fish & Chips Dark Kitchen” (oral) – AgriFoRwArdS CDT Summer School 2022 [July 2022] – Norwich, UK.
• “Does Baxter Dream of Electric Beans?” (oral) – AgriFoRwArdS CDT Summer School 2023 [March 2023] – Lincoln, UK.
• “Lettuce modelling for growth control in precision agriculture” (oral) – European Control Conference (ECC) 2023 [June 2023] – Online.
• “Precision Agriculture: Controlling Crop Growth” (poster) – Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS) 2023 / AgriFoRwArdS CDT Annual Conference 2023 / Joint Robotics CDT Annual Conference 2023 [September 2023] – Cambridge, UK.

Other Activities

• Member of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT Advisory Board (March 2021 to present).
• Member of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT Student Panel (March 2022 to present).
• University of Cambridge Demonstrator for third year labs.
• Represented the AgriFoRwArdS CDT at IFE Manufacturing 2024 – provided video showcasing research [March 2024] – London, UK.
• Robotic demonstrations and PhD research presentation given to potential University of Cambridge students at University of Cambridge Open Day [2021].
• Robotic demonstrations and PhD research presentation given to potential University of Cambridge students at University of Cambridge Open Day [2022].

About me

I am particularly interested in soft robotics and manipulation, as well as human-robot collaboration and interaction.

MSc Project

Non-destructive mass estimation of Iceberg Lettuce

This project aims to develop a non-destructive mass estimation method for iceberg lettuce based on parameter estimation using the dynamic response of the plant to an input signal. Currently, in industry, the mass of an iceberg lettuce is measured destructively. A non-destructive method for mass estimation would enable measurements to be taken throughout a plant’s life to track growth.

PhD Project

Autonomous monitoring and control of crop growth as a feedback system

The project will model and control the growth of crops in an agricultural setting. The goal is to enable growers to maximise their harvest, by taking advantage of distributed sensing to optimise the use of fertilisers and of automation for crop management. The impact of the project will be the first direct application of feedback control to plant growth in an agricultural field.

Will will work through four work packages. The student will develop: (i) lettuce growth modelling as an open dynamical system, (ii) feedback control algorithms for crop optimization, (iii) distributed sensing technologies, (iv) automation for growth control. The student will take advantage of the facilities of the Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge (Control prototyping lab, Agripods within the Observatory for Human-Machine Collaboration) and of the industry partner G’s growers (expertise, extensive databases, sensing technologies, automation).

Will’s PhD project is being carried out in collaboration with G’s Growers, with primary supervision by Dr Fulvio Forni.