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UT Tyler earns grant from USDA to strengthen crop farming

The team will incorporate agricultural intelligence into drones used to alternate between row crops, and separate row crops from broadleaf weeds and grasses.

TYLER, Texas — The University of Texas at Tyler has received a $191,150 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service to strengthen drone based frameworks for crop monitoring on large scale farms.

UT Tyler assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering, Dr. Prabha Sundaravadivel is expecting to work with researchers at the USDA Crop Productions System Unit in Stoneville, Mississippi on the two-year project.

The team will incorporate agricultural intelligence into drones used to alternate between row crops, and separate row crops from broadleaf weeds and grasses. 

In addition, the team will explore a possible application for prescription-based herbicide spraying. 

Sundaravadivel's research expands on developing edge-intelligent systems for environmental sensing applications; application-specific architectures for smart health care; bio inspired soft robotics and more.

“If successful, the project outcomes can help integrate drones as autonomous surveillance vehicles for the early detection of weeds in large agricultural fields,” said Sundaravadivel.

Sundaravadivel first joined UT Tyler's engineering faculty in 2018 and is currently directing the university's Intelligent Systems Lab.

In addition, she is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and serves as the faculty advisor for the UT Tyler IoT student club.

Sundaravadivel currently holds a Master of Technology in VLSI design from the Vellore Institute of Technology in India and a doctorate in computer science and engineering from the University of North Texas.

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