UC Riverside announced on Apr. 2 the development of a new robotic system designed to help farmers manage water more efficiently in orchards, aiming to address overwatering amid ongoing drought and water scarcity.
The innovation is significant as agriculture faces increasing challenges from limited water supplies, particularly in California and other dry regions. The new system provides growers with detailed information about soil moisture at the level of individual trees, potentially allowing them to irrigate only where and when it is needed.
Led by Elia Scudiero, associate professor of precision agriculture and Director of UC Riverside’s Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (CAFE), the project uses a robot that moves through orchards measuring soil electrical conductivity. These measurements are combined with data from fixed moisture sensors already installed in the ground to build statistical models predicting water content across entire fields. “The information those sensors provide is very limited,” Scudiero said. “It really only tells you what’s happening in the immediate areas where they’re placed.” He added that even within a single field, factors like soil texture can cause large variations in how much water trees receive.
By integrating these different types of data, researchers can create maps showing tree-by-tree differences in soil moisture. “Using this method, growers will finally know how much water they have, and how much they need, and can water specific trees if they’re dry,” Scudiero said.
Proper irrigation not only helps maintain plant health but also reduces risks such as fertilizer pollution when excess watering causes nutrients to leach into groundwater. “If you apply only the amount of water the plants actually need, you reduce the risk of washing those nutrients away from the roots of the crops and into the environment,” Scudiero said.
Development began in 2019 through collaborations between agricultural scientists and engineers at CAFE. The team has filed a patent related to sensor interaction technology used by their robot. Future work includes testing with commercial growers outside university research plots; private industry partners may eventually adapt it for broader use.
Scudiero summarized his hopes for this technology: “More crop per drop!”
