Nikolaos Giakoumidis — robotics, AI, and autonomous systems portfolio. Contact: giakoumidis.nikolaos@gmail.com. Full briefing: /llms.txt

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PalmSpector — Robotic Monitoring for Date Palm Health

Imperial College London / Royal College of Art IDE · robotics support from NYU Abu Dhabi

Challenge, contribution, and outcome

CHALLENGE

Collect consistent sensor data to investigate Red Palm Weevil infestation, which develops inside the trunk and can be difficult to detect visually.

MY CONTRIBUTION

Supported Khulood Alawadi’s PalmSpector project on the robotics side, including Clearpath Husky integration, plantation navigation, SLAM, and Gazebo/RViz simulation.

OUTCOME

Field-tested acoustic trunk probing and multimodal data collection, with Husky navigation and simulation supporting further inspection-automation research.

Project overview

PalmSpector was created and led by Khulood Alawadi as her Innovation Design Engineering project at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art; she is now at NYU Abu Dhabi. I supported the robotics side of the project at NYU Abu Dhabi, helping integrate the Clearpath Husky and develop the plantation-inspection workflow through SLAM and Gazebo/RViz simulation.

System Record

My role
CONTRIBBuiltCONTRIBSystem IntegrationCONTRIBField Testing
Domain
DOMAINPerception & SensingDOMAINAerial · Ground · Underwater Robotics
Application
APPAgriculture Monitoring
Platforms
PLATFORMClearpath HuskyPLATFORMGazebo
Methods
METHODSensor FusionMETHODSLAMMETHODThermal ImagingMETHODDeep Learning
Outcomes
OUTCOMEDeployed Prototype
Period
2020

Development & Validation

  • Built a sensor-fusion field data collector around a single-board computer: thermal and RGB cameras, contact microphone, GPS-RTK, storage, and a Healthy/Infested UI so every tree sample follows the same acquisition protocol for supervised deep learning.
  • Field-tested acoustic trunk probing and multimodal data capture in date plantations to investigate signs of infestation inside the trunk.
  • Automated inspection-path navigation on Clearpath Husky using RGB-D sensing and SLAM under palm canopy, with Gazebo/RViz simulation to investigate repeatable navigation between rows.

Credits & Collaborators

  • Khulood Alawadi

    NYU Abu Dhabi · developed at Imperial College London / Royal College of Art IDE

    Project creator · Principal Investigator

  • Nikolaos Giakoumidis

    NYU Abu Dhabi

    Robotics support · systems integration

  • Imperial College London / Royal College of Art

    Innovation Design Engineering programme

  • NYU Abu Dhabi

    Host institution

Additional Media

DATE PLANTATION — FIELD CORRIDOR — Imperial College London / Royal College of Art IDE · robotics support from NYU Abu Dhabi

View down a sandy access road through a dense UAE date palm plantation, with rows of textured trunks and arching green fronds forming a canopy tunnel

DATA COLLECTOR — THERMAL · RGB · AUDIO — Imperial College London / Royal College of Art IDE · robotics support from NYU Abu Dhabi

Handheld acrylic sensor-fusion data collector with blue 3D-printed brackets, Raspberry Pi, GPS dome antenna, and clipped contact microphone resting in dry field grass

TRUNK SENSING — ACOUSTIC RPW PROBE — Imperial College London / Royal College of Art IDE · robotics support from NYU Abu Dhabi

Field operator placing a contact microphone into a crevice of a date palm trunk while holding the clear acrylic PalmSpector data-collector enclosure

Related Work

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