Event Location: GHC 2109
Bio: Fernando Auat Cheein received the Doctorate degree in 2009 and the Master of Science degree in 2005, both in San Juan, Argentina. Since 2013 he is a Professor with Federico Santa María Technical University (UTFSM), in Valparaíso, Chile, after doing his post doc research stay in agricultural robotics also in Argentina and Brazil. He is the founder of GRAI (Autonomous and Industrial Robotics Research Group), in the UTFSM, as well as a Principal Research (and member of the board) at the Advanced Center for Electrical and Electronic Engineering, in Valparaiso, Chile. His field of experience is SLAM, control systems, remote sensing and estimation theory applied to dynamical systems.

Abstract: In recent years, agriculture in Chile has experienced serious challenges that have affected its productivity, such as low water reserves due to climate change, loss of arable land due to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes , and the upward trend of the mining industry. To improve productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural industry in these adverse scenarios, it becomes necessary to introduce and develop agricultural automation and sensing technologies for both primary (harvesting, seeding, fertilizing, spraying) and secondary tasks (grove supervision, weed detection, hauling, mowing). Additionally, these innovations should be implemented in a framework that takes into account information about the crop and its surroundings. In this presentation it will be presented the Autonomous and Industrial Robotics Research Group and Advanced Center of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Federico Santa Maria Technical University.