Company
Portfolio Data
Back to Company SearchPADMA AGROBOTICS LLC
UEI: L22JSN2EXCC5
Number of Employees: 3
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
SBIR/STTR Involvement
Year of first award: 2023
2
Phase I Awards
1
Phase II Awards
50%
Conversion Rate
$356,034
Phase I Dollars
$650,000
Phase II Dollars
$1,006,034
Total Awarded
Awards
Autonomous harvester for cilantro with bunching and tying capability
Amount: $650,000 Topic: 8.13
This project aims to develop the first automated robotic harvester for cilantro and other specialty crops that are harvested in bunches. In the U.S. it costs a farmer approximately $5000 to harvest an acre of cilantro half of it devoted to personnel. Padma AgRobotic's machine will drastically improve the productivity per worker bringing the cost of a harvested acre down to $2500. More importantly the robot will help tackling the severe workforce issues currently affecting the agricultural sector. This will permit to grow produce that is nowadays economically unviable thus reducing the need to import certain essential vegetables thus making US internationally more competitive. To our knowledge no such system exists in the market in spite of the growing need. This Phase II seeks to advance the current version of the technology (version 1) with a focus on optimizing the initial design and building a fully integrated cilantro harvester (version 2) ready to be commercialized. The specific project objectives are: design and build a ground-based cilantro accumulation and feeder system; develop a semi-autonomous mobile platform; develop a label inserter and integrate the tying unit; integrate the cutting and transporter unit; and build multiple harvester arms and conveyor belt for transportation. This proposal addresses the Topic Area 8.13 "Plant Production and Protection (Engineering)" specifically its Research Priority 1. "Improved Crop Production Methods or Strategies" and its topics a. "Technologies that enhance commercial horticulture production" b. "Production harvesting and postharvest handling of specialty crops" and c. "Cyber-physical systems to support precision agriculture".
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2024
USDA
NIFA
Autonomous harvester for cilantro with bunching and tying capability
Amount: $181,500 Topic: 8.13
This project aims to develop an automated robotic harvester for cilantro and other specialty cropsthat are harvested in bunches. Currently this is a labor-intensive task that takes up to 50% of totalcosts. Automating this task would mean reducing OPEX for farms by 40%-50% and moreimportantly tackling the huge labor shortage currently affecting the agricultural sector. This willpermit to grow produce that is nowadays economically unviable due high labor costs thus reducingthe need to import cilantro and other specialty crops and making US internationally morecompetitive.Phase I will focus on developing a proof-of-concept prototype and test the operation with realcilantro in an iterative design process. The principal technical challenge is the stem collection andbunching system which requires complex and precise mechatronics to accurately detect cutextract transfer and bunch the cilantro stems into a precise size which are later tied. Both the tyingsystem and the autonomous moving platform that traverses the cilantro beds will represent a lesserchallenge as the company has already developed working prototypes that only need to be adapted.To our knowledge no such system exists in the market in spite of the growing need representing ahigh-risk endeavor.This proposal addresses the Topic Area 8.13 "Plant Production and Protection (Engineering)"specifically its Research Priority 1. "Improved Crop Production Methods or Strategies" and itstopics a. "Technologies that enhance commercial horticulture production" b. "Productionharvesting and postharvest handling of specialty crops" and c. "Cyber-physical systems to supportprecision agriculture".
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2023
USDA