Publications

Heselden, J., Paparas, D., Stevenson, R., & Das, G. (2024) Enhanced STag Marker System: Materials and Methods for Flexible Robot Localisation, Machines, vol. 13, no. 1. [December 2024].

Stevenson, R.,Paparas, D., Faris, O., Xu, X., Merchant, C., Smith, E., Nicholls, B., & Fox, C. (2025). Open Source Hardware Whisker Sensor. In: Huda, M.N., Wang, M., Kalganova, T. (eds) Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. TAROS 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15051. Springer, Cham. [December 2024].

Presentations

“Predictive Modelling of Grafting Success in Tomato Plants” (poster) – AgriFoRwArdS CDT Annual Conference 2024: Robots in Action [July 2024] – Norwich, UK.

“Interactive Perception: A heuristic approach to overcoming physical occlusions in tomato picking” (oral) – AgriFoRwArdS CDT Summer School: Robotic Phenotyping [July 2024] – Wageningen, The Netherlands.

“Predictive Modelling of Grafting Success” (poster) – AgriFoRwArdS CDT Summer School: Robotic Phenotyping [July 2024] – Wageningen, The Netherlands.

“The AgriFoRwArdS CDT Summer School – Interactive Perception (Theme 5)” (oral) – Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS) 2024 [August 2024] – London, UK.

“Predictive Modelling of Grafting Success in Tomato Grafts” – AgriFoRwArdS CDT Quarterly PhD Research Progress Meeting & new student welcome [October 2024] – Cambridge, UK.

“Towards Olfactory Harvesting: The First Few Steps​” (oral) – AgriFoRwArdS Seminar Day and Quarterly Research Progress Meeting [December 2024] – Lincoln, UK.

“Predictive Modelling of Grafting Success in Tomato Plants” (poster) – The Fruiterers Conference: The Use of Data in the Fruit Industry [February 2025] – Cambridge, UK.

“Novel Olfaction Platform and Gas Source Localization” (oral) – AgriFoRwArdS CDT Annual Conference 2025 [May 2025] – Online.

“Predictive Modelling of Grafting Success in Tomato Grafts” (poster) – University of Cambridge AgriFoRwArdS Industry Event [May 2025] – Cambridge, UK. 

“Baa-ndwidth” (oral) – AgriFoRwArdS CDT Summer School 2025: Going to the Dogs! [June 2025] – Lincoln, UK.

Activities and Outputs

• Member of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT Advisory Board [November 2023 to present].
• Member of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT Student Panel [November 2023 to present].
• Member of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Panel [November 2023 to present].
• Contributor to AgriFoRwArdS CDT news article ‘Peer-to-peer support for the transition to PhD’ [March 2024].

About me

Dimitrios Paparas is a PhD student in the Occhipinti Group at the University of Cambridge, focusing on gas sensor development for agricultural applications. He holds a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Southampton and an MSc in Robotics and Autonomous Systems from the University of Lincoln, both with First-Class Honours.

Dimitrios’s passion for applied research and real-world impact led him to the AgriFoRwArdS Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), a UKRI EPSRC-funded initiative led by the University of Lincoln in partnership with the University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia. His MSc work concentrated on Open-Source Hardware (OSH) whisker sensors for tactile sensing applications, and his thesis focused on the non-invasive detection of graft failure in tomato plants using computer vision.

His current PhD research, conducted in collaboration with Dyson Farming and supervised by Dr. Luigi Occhipinti, explores “Robotic Olfactory Approaches for Physiology Monitoring and Harvesting of Fragaria × ananassa.” Dimitrios is researching the convergence of sensing, machine learning, and robotics for applications in fruit harvesting and plant health monitoring, focusing on early disease detection and tracking physiological processes such as ripening, senescence, and healing. His work addresses critical challenges in Agri-Tech, aligning with the AgriFoRwArdS emphasis on advanced sensing and perception technologies for agriculture.

MSc Project

Predictive Modelling of Grafting Success in Tomato Plants 

This project seeks to develop AI-based models able to predict early signs of graft failure/success in tomato plants. Two primary methods will be investigated and compared: graft union impedance and vision-based techniques.

PhD Project

Biosensor Development for In-Field Plant Diagnostics and Physiology Monitoring

The project aims to explore the potential benefits of combining biosensing, machine learning, and robotics for in-field plant diagnostics and physiology monitoring. Plant diagnostics will primarily focus on molecular diagnostics platforms that enable early and precise detection and identification of pathogens, such as fungi, as supported by prior work. Biosensor-enabled plant physiology monitoring will also target early disease detection as well as elements of plant growth (e.g., healing, ripening, senescence). 

This project brings device-level developments to the CDT for system-level applications. The project plan aims to solve unmet needs between the industry and state-of-the-art agricultural research within the scope of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT. From a top-level perspective, this project lies firmly within the CDT’s sensing and perception research area but aspires to interact with projects focusing on manipulation, mobile robotics, and automation. Autonomous Mobile Diagnostics Platform, Plant-as-a-Sensor Paradigm, and Olfactory Fruit Harvesting are all subprojects that may be explored under this research theme in collaboration with other CDT students and the industry partner.

Dimitrios’ PhD project is being carried out in collaboration with Dyson Farming, under the primary supervision of Dr Luigi Occhipinti.