Computer vision for field use in agriculture and recycling w/Michael Nielsen

02/28/20 • 36 min

Michael talks about his work in computer vision for field use in agriculture and recycling.

He started out in computer vision in the agriculture space doing machine vision and 3D reconstruction of plants. He then moved to the Danish Technological Institute when they expanded their work on machine vision for field use in agriculture.

Michael worked with a fusion of sensors like stereo vision, thermography, radar, lidar and high frame rate cameras, merging multiple images for high dynamic range. All this to be able to navigate the tricky situation in a farm field where you need to navigate close to or even in what is grown. Multi-baseline cameras were also used to provide range detection over a wide range of distances.

We also learn about how he expanded his work into sorting recycling, a very challenging problem. Here the sensor fusion gives him RGB as well as depth and temperature. Adding a powerful studio flash to the setup allowed him to heat the material being sorted, making it possible to determine the material, depending on how it absorbs the heat from the flash. Michael is also working on adding cameras capable of seeing above the human range of vision to make it easy to specify which materials to pick. We also hear about the problems faced when using time of flight and sheet of light cameras. He then shares some good results using stereo vision, especially combined with blue light random dot projectors.

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Michael talks about his work in computer vision for field use in agriculture and recycling.

This podcast is part of the Wevolver network. Wevolver is a platform & community providing engineers informative content to help them innovate.

Learn more at Wevolver.com

Promote your company in our podcast?

If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast, you can contact us at [email protected]

Previous Episode

Understanding the world around you using game theory w/Nicole Immorlica

Nicole talks about game theory and how she feels that it is her way to understand the world around her.

Nicole talks about game theory, a way to understand how intelligent agents, humans or machines, interact and optimize their outcome in a particular context.

Nicole discusses how this process can be used to create user interactions that are understandable and can be used efficiently.

We also hear about how dynamic games apply to robotics and how robots deal with the ever-changing world they act in.

Nicole then talks about a trend in market design where large amounts of data about previous behavior is used to redesign the market and optimize it. We also hear about how this is used to understand how people use and interact on social media platforms.

She also shares how game theory can be used to explain behavior that is not optimal, for instance in procrastination.

This podcast is part of the Wevolver network. Wevolver is a platform & community providing engineers informative content to help them innovate.
Learn more at Wevolver.com

Next Episode

The impact of robots who start taking decisions like humans do. w/Cristina Andersson

Cristina talks about the impact off the ever growing set of tasks that robots can perform and that they can start taking taking decisions like humans do.

In 2013 she organized events in Finland during European robotics week and found that many people was very interested but that there was also a big lack of knowledge.

She calls of more visions on how we can use robotics to address the challenges society face today. She is especially interested in three areas,

Demography, many countries are facing a big change in the numbers of working to non working. She thinks that we need to develop technologies to address the needs of everyone and assure that it is accessible for everyone that needs it.

She also sees that robotics have a big role to play in exploring environments that are hostile to humans and that they can make it possible for us to better understand thees environments. This understanding will make it easier to address the most important issues in a efficient way.

Her third focus is making education accessible for everyone. When large transformations happen due to the introduction of new technologies it is very important to make it possible for everyone to participate and then education is critical. This is absolutely true for robotics.

She also talks about introducing robotics in society in a way that makes it easy for everyone to understand the benefits as this will make the process much easier. When people see the clear benefits in one field or situation they will be much more interested in bringing robotics in to their private or professional lives.

She also talks about the Bestick robot that helps people that can not eat by them self, and how profound this is, giving some one back an ability that most of us take for granted.

This podcast is part of the Wevolver network. Wevolver is a platform & community providing engineers informative content to help them innovate.
Learn more at Wevolver.com