Dr. Ramviyas Parasuraman has received a new 3-year $1M NIFA grant on Cyber-Physical Systems for the project titled "Collaborative Research: CPS: Medium: AI-driven Cyber-Physical Heterogeneous Systems for Precision Poultry Farming." This collaborative project between the University of Georgia and Iowa State University focuses on the advances of Robotics and AI in Precision Animal Systems. UGA is the lead institution with Dr. Parasuraman (School of Computing) as the lead PI and Drs. Ramana Pidaparti (College of Engineering), and Drs. Brian Fairchild and Guoming Li (Poultry Sciences) are the co-PIs. Dr. Joshua Peschel (Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering) at Iowa State University is a collaborator. This research project aims to optimize bird welfare and productivity in poultry production by developing an integrated Cyber-Physical System (CPS) that combines robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced sensing technologies. Key innovations include continuous localization of robots and environmental monitoring through sensors, AI-driven data analysis for detecting patterns and anomalies, and robotics for tasks like mortality collection. The impact extends to improving farm efficiency, reducing labor and health risks for workers, enhancing animal welfare, promoting sustainable agricultural practices, and fostering advancements in smart farming technologies applicable to other livestock industries.
