KONRAD ZUSE YOUTH AWARD 2021 FOR INFORMATICS: Development of a low-cost, self-balancing and autonomous agricultural robot

Robots are becoming increasingly common in everyday life, for example as vacuum cleaners or lawn mowing robots. In his research project, Simon Sure set himself the goal of supporting agriculture and designing a robot for the field. To do this, he used the drive system of a used hoverboard, a two-wheeled vehicle that can balance on its own. He equipped it with a compass, motion sensors, several cameras and a small computer along with software he wrote himself. This enables the robot to recognize plants and map its surroundings so that it can navigate unerringly across the field. The young researcher is currently working on a robot arm that can chop up weeds and mix them into the soil as fertilizer.