Nevada Professor Wins $600K NSF Grant for Farm Robotics

The five-year grant, totaling $618,201, will fund Maini's work on precision agriculture, which uses technology to optimize crop production. His project focuses on creating coordinated fleets of aerial drones and ground vehicles that can assess crop health in real time.

Maini, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, will design algorithms that allow the robots to share data and make decisions as a team. The goal is to give farmers detailed, timely information about plant stress, nutrient levels, or pest damage, potentially reducing the need for manual scouting.

The CAREER Award is the NSF's most prestigious honor for early-career faculty, supporting both research and education. Maini's project will also integrate educational components, including opportunities for students to work on the robotics systems and develop curriculum for K-12 outreach.

The research could help address labor shortages in agriculture and support more sustainable farming practices by enabling targeted interventions, such as precise irrigation or pesticide application, rather than whole-field treatments.